Oakleigh
A name of English origin meaning "oak meadow" or "oak clearing".
Name Census estimates that about 3,688 living Americans carry the first name Oakleigh. It is a predominantly female name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Oakleigh today is around 6 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Oakleigh births was 2022 (602 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Oakleigh. 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.
Key insights
- • Oakleigh is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 6 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.7K
~ 1 in 92,938 Americans
Peak year
2022
602 babies that year
Average age
6
years old
2022 SSA rank
#629
Tracked since 2005
Gender
Gender distribution for Oakleigh
Out of the 3,711 babies given the name Oakleigh since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Oakleigh as a male name
- Ranked #11,906 in 2022
- 6 male births in 2022
- Peak: 2021 (6 births)
Oakleigh as a female name
- Ranked #629 in 2024
- 469 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (598 births)
Popularity
Oakleigh: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Oakleigh from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 2,484 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Oakleigh 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 Oakleigh during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Oakleighs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. Texas, Ohio, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Oakleigh, while South Dakota, Montana, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 85 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Oakleigh
The name Oakleigh is of English origin and is believed to have derived from the Old English words "ac" meaning oak and "leah" meaning meadow or woodland clearing. It is a locational name, referring to a place where oak trees grew in a meadow or clearing.
The earliest recorded use of the name Oakleigh dates back to the 12th century, where it appeared in various forms such as Acleia, Acleye, and Ockley. It was primarily used as a surname in areas like Surrey and Kent, where oak forests were abundant.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Oakleigh was Sir Richard de Ockley, a 13th-century English knight who was granted lands in Surrey by King Henry III. Another notable individual was Sir Thomas Ockley, a 17th-century English diplomat and author, who served as the British consul in Egypt and wrote a significant work on the history of the Saracens.
In the 19th century, the name Oakleigh gained popularity as a given name, particularly in England and Australia. One notable bearer was Oakleigh Thorne (1836-1925), an Australian politician and businessman who served as the Mayor of Brighton in Victoria.
Another famous individual with the name Oakleigh was Sir Oakleigh Pitcher (1891-1963), a British diplomat and civil servant who served as the Governor of the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands in the mid-20th century.
In literature, the name Oakleigh appeared in the works of Sir Walter Scott, where it was used as a character name in his novel "Woodstock" published in 1826.
While the name Oakleigh has been more commonly used as a surname, its use as a given name has remained relatively rare but has gained some traction in recent times, particularly in English-speaking countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia.
People
Oakleigh + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Oakleigh as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Oakleigh: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Oakleigh?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,688 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Oakleigh 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 92,938 US residents.
Is Oakleigh a common name?
We classify Oakleigh as "Rare". It ranks above 95.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,711 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Oakleigh most popular?
The single biggest year for Oakleigh was 2022, when 602 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Oakleigh is about 6 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Oakleigh a female name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Oakleigh 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.
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.