Ainsley
A feminine name of English origin meaning "from the meadow enclosure".
Name Census estimates that about 20,012 living Americans carry the first name Ainsley. It is a predominantly female name (97.9% of registrations). The average person named Ainsley today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ainsley births was 2014 (1,013 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ainsley. 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 Ainsley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Ainsley is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 418 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Ainsley is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
20K
~ 1 in 17,127 Americans
Peak year
2014
1,013 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2023 SSA rank
#706
Tracked since 1950
Census
Ainsley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 16,854 people with the first name Ainsley, which placed it at #1,780 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
#1,780
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
16,854 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ainsley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ainsley is White at 84.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Ainsley 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 Ainsley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.5% · 14,246
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 861
- Two or more races4.9% · 828
- Black or African American3.8% · 646
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 202
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 71
Gender
Gender distribution for Ainsley
Ainsley leans heavily female at 97.9% of total registrations, but 418 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ainsley as a male name
- Ranked #8,280 in 2023
- 9 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2015 (17 births)
Ainsley as a female name
- Ranked #706 in 2024
- 397 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (1,001 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ainsley leans strongly female. 16,141 people counted with this name were female (95.8%), compared with 700 male bearers (4.2%).
Popularity
Ainsley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ainsley from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 9,065 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ainsley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ainsley 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 Ainsley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ainsleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Texas, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Ainsley, while Wyoming, Vermont, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 364 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ainsley
The name Ainsley originated from an English surname that derived from a place name, Annesley, in Nottinghamshire, England. The name Annesley comes from the Old English words "anne" meaning "solitary" and "ley" meaning "meadow" or "clearing." The name Ainsley likely emerged as a variant spelling of the surname during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ainsley dates back to the 13th century, when a person named Ainsley de Annesley was mentioned in the Testa de Nevill, a record of land holdings in England. The name continued to be used primarily as a surname throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era.
The first recorded use of Ainsley as a given name appears to be in the late 19th century. One of the earliest known individuals with the first name Ainsley was Ainsley Armstrong (1886-1962), a Canadian politician who served as a member of the House of Commons of Canada.
Other notable individuals named Ainsley throughout history include:
1. Ainsley Harriott (born 1957), a British chef, television presenter, and author.
2. Ainsley Maitland-Niles (born 1997), an English professional football player.
3. Ainsley Earhardt (born 1976), an American television personality and author.
4. Ainsley Candrich (1898-1983), an American film director and screenwriter.
5. Ainsley Gommon (born 1972), a Canadian actress and singer.
While the name Ainsley has its roots in England, it has gained popularity as a given name in various English-speaking countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia. The name has been used for both males and females, although it is more commonly given to girls in recent decades.
People
Ainsley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ainsley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ainsley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ainsley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 20,012 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ainsley 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 17,127 US residents.
Is Ainsley a common name?
We classify Ainsley as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 20,263 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ainsley most popular?
The single biggest year for Ainsley was 2014, when 1,013 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ainsley is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ainsley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 16,854 people with the name Ainsley, or 5.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,780 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 Ainsley 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 Ainsley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ainsley leans strongly female. 16,141 people counted with this name were female (95.8%), compared with 700 male bearers (4.2%). 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 Ainsley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ainsley is White at 84.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Ainsley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ainsley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.5% (14,246 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 Ainsley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ainsley a female name?
Yes, 97.9% of people registered as Ainsley 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 Ainsley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ainsley 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 Ainsley 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 share the name Ainsley?
You can see how many Americans are named Ainsley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.