Hayley
A feminine name of English origin meaning "hay meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 49,732 living Americans carry the first name Hayley. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hayley today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hayley births was 1993 (2,624 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hayley. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Hayley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
50K
~ 1 in 6,892 Americans
Peak year
1993
2,624 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2004 SSA rank
#1,068
Tracked since 1960
Census
Hayley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 47,064 people with the first name Hayley, which placed it at #946 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#946
National first-name rank
People counted
47K
47,064 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hayley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hayley is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.7%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Hayley described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Hayley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.6% · 39,355
- Hispanic or Latino7.7% · 3,602
- Two or more races4.3% · 2,038
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 945
- Black or African American1.8% · 860
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 264
Gender
Gender distribution for Hayley
Out of the 51,269 babies given the name Hayley since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Hayley as a male name
- Ranked #5,928 in 2004
- 13 male births in 2004
- Peak: 2004 (13 births)
Hayley as a female name
- Ranked #1,068 in 2024
- 232 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (2,618 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hayley appears almost entirely female. Of the 47,063 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Hayley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hayley from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 21,881 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hayley by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Hayley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hayleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Hayley, while Wyoming, District of Columbia, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 960 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hayley
The name Hayley is an English feminine given name derived from the Old English words "hæg" meaning "hay" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing". It originated as a surname describing someone who lived near a hay meadow or clearing in an area with Germanic linguistic influences.
In its earliest recorded use as a given name, Hayley appeared in the 16th century. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Hayley Ould, who was born in Lincolnshire, England in 1557. Around this time, the name also surfaced in literature, such as in the 1590 work "The Faerie Queene" by Edmund Spenser.
Over the next few centuries, Hayley remained an uncommon name, but had several notable bearers. In the 18th century, the English poet William Hayley (1745-1820) helped popularize the name. Another famous Hayley from this era was the British adventurer and author Hayley Gaunt (1758-1828), known for her travels in the Middle East.
As the name grew more fashionable in the 19th century, it was borne by figures like the American author Hayley Barker (1828-1892) and the British artist Hayley Lever (1876-1958). The 20th century saw the rise of celebrities such as the American actress Hayley Mills (born 1946) and the British singer Hayley Westenra (born 1987), further boosting the name's popularity.
Other historical individuals named Hayley include the British Quaker minister Hayley Ann Phipps (1644-1717), the English botanist Hayley Katherine Norman (1862-1939), and the Canadian World War I flying ace Hayley Alexander Trefusis (1897-1964). The name has remained consistently used across English-speaking countries over the past few centuries.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Hayley
People
Hayley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hayley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Hayley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hayley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 49,732 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hayley going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 6,892 US residents.
Is Hayley a common name?
We classify Hayley as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 51,269 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hayley most popular?
The single biggest year for Hayley was 1993, when 2,624 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hayley is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hayley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 47,064 people with the name Hayley, or 15.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #946 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Hayley in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Hayley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hayley appears almost entirely female. Of the 47,063 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Hayley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hayley is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.7%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Hayley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hayley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.6% (39,355 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Hayley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hayley a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Hayley in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Hayley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hayley in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Hayley can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Hayley as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.