Hailee
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly a variation of Hayley.
Name Census estimates that about 16,041 living Americans carry the first name Hailee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hailee today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hailee births was 2003 (850 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hailee. 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 Hailee with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
16K
~ 1 in 21,367 Americans
Peak year
2003
850 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2004 SSA rank
#1,291
Tracked since 1979
Census
Hailee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,246 people with the first name Hailee, which placed it at #2,051 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
#2,051
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
13,246 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hailee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hailee is White at 75.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.9%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Hailee 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 Hailee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.9% · 10,055
- Hispanic or Latino10.9% · 1,447
- Two or more races5.6% · 736
- Black or African American4.7% · 617
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 243
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 148
Gender
Gender distribution for Hailee
Out of the 16,324 babies given the name Hailee since 1880, 100.0% 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.
Hailee as a male name
- Ranked #10,430 in 2004
- 6 male births in 2004
- Peak: 2004 (6 births)
Hailee as a female name
- Ranked #1,291 in 2024
- 179 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (850 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hailee appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,240 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Hailee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hailee from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 7,433 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hailee 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 Hailee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hailees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Hailee, while Hawaii, New Hampshire, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 309 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hailee
The name Hailee is a relatively modern English variant of the name Hayley, which is believed to have originated from Old English and Old German roots. The name Hayley is thought to be derived from the Old English words "hæg," meaning "hay" or "hedge," and "leah," meaning "meadow" or "clearing." Combining these elements, the name Hayley could have originally referred to a person living in a meadow near a hedge.
While the precise origin of the spelling variation "Hailee" is uncertain, it likely emerged as a creative alternative to the more traditional spelling of Hayley. The addition of the double "e" at the end may have been influenced by other popular feminine names ending in "ee," such as Aimee or Renee.
There are no known direct historical references or mentions of the name Hailee in ancient texts or religious scriptures. However, the Old English roots of the name Hayley can be traced back to the early medieval period in Britain.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Hailee was Hailee Steinfeld, an American actress and singer born in 1996. She rose to prominence for her Oscar-nominated role in the 2010 film "True Grit."
Another notable figure with the name Hailee is Hailee Keanna Lyman Felsvaug, a Norwegian-American actress and singer born in 1999. She is known for her roles in the Disney Channel series "Shake It Up" and the film "Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?"
In the realm of sports, Hailee Deegan is an American professional stock car racing driver born in 2001. She has competed in various NASCAR series and has been recognized as a rising talent in the motorsports world.
Hailee Kaleem Wright, born in 1991, is a British singer and songwriter who rose to fame as a member of the girl group Miss Dynamix, which competed on the reality show "The X Factor" in 2013.
Another historical figure with the name Hailee is Hailee Grace Keepers, an American painter and artist born in 1983. She is known for her vibrant abstract expressionist works and has exhibited her art in galleries across the United States.
While the name Hailee may not have a long historical lineage, its emergence as a modern variant of the ancient name Hayley has allowed it to carve its own path and be associated with notable individuals across various fields, from entertainment to sports and the arts.
People
Hailee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hailee 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
Hailee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hailee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 16,041 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hailee 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 21,367 US residents.
Is Hailee a common name?
We classify Hailee as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 16,324 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hailee most popular?
The single biggest year for Hailee was 2003, when 850 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hailee is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hailee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,246 people with the name Hailee, or 4.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,051 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 Hailee 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 Hailee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hailee appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,240 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 Hailee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hailee is White at 75.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.9%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Hailee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hailee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.9% (10,055 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 Hailee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hailee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hailee 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 Hailee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hailee 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 Hailee 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 Americans are named Hailee?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.