Hailey
A unisex name of English origin meaning "hay meadow" or "hay's meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 176,259 living Americans carry the first name Hailey. It sits at #100 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hailey today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hailey births was 2003 (8,808 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Sydney (175,906).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hailey. 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 Hailey with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Hailey is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 271 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
176K
~ 1 in 1,945 Americans
Peak year
2003
8,808 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2023 SSA rank
#100
Tracked since 1922
Census
Hailey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 147,735 people with the first name Hailey, which placed it at #376 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
#376
National first-name rank
People counted
148K
147,735 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
48.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hailey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hailey is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.3%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Hailey 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 Hailey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.1% · 109,434
- Hispanic or Latino14.3% · 21,103
- Two or more races4.8% · 7,057
- Black or African American3.3% · 4,820
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 4,013
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 1,308
Gender
Gender distribution for Hailey
Out of the 179,122 babies given the name Hailey since 1880, 99.8% 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.
Hailey as a male name
- Ranked #11,315 in 2023
- 6 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2004 (40 births)
Hailey as a female name
- Ranked #100 in 2024
- 2,620 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (8,798 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hailey appears almost entirely female. Of the 147,731 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Hailey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hailey from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 82,126 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
Hailey 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 Hailey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Haileys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Hailey, while District of Columbia, Vermont, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,490 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hailey
The name Hailey is an English given name derived from the surname Hayley, which originated as a place name in Cambridgeshire, England. The place name Hayley is thought to have derived from the Old English words "hæg" meaning "hay" and "leah" meaning "clearing" or "meadow". Thus, the name Hailey likely meant "hay clearing" or "meadow of hay".
In the Middle Ages, the surname Hayley was first recorded in various spellings such as Hayley, Hailey, and Hayly. It was not until the 19th century that the spelling Hailey became more common as a first name for girls. One of the earliest known bearers of the name Hailey was Hailey Westbrooke, born in 1820 in Gloucestershire, England.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Hailey. Hailey Comet, born in 1835, was a British astronomer known for his study of the periodic comet that bears his name. Hailey Atwell, born in 1982, is a British actress best known for her role as Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Hailey Mills, born in 1946, is a British actress who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1960 film "Pollyanna". Hailey Bieber, born in 1996, is an American model and television personality who is married to singer Justin Bieber.
Hailey Gates, born in 1989, is an American tennis player who has won several singles and doubles titles on the WTA Tour. These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have borne the name Hailey throughout history.
People
Hailey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hailey 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
Hailey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hailey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 176,259 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hailey 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 1,945 US residents.
Is Hailey a common name?
We classify Hailey as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 179,122 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hailey most popular?
The single biggest year for Hailey was 2003, when 8,808 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hailey is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hailey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 147,735 people with the name Hailey, or 48.91 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #376 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 Hailey 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 Hailey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hailey appears almost entirely female. Of the 147,731 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Hailey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hailey is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.3%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Hailey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hailey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.1% (109,434 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 Hailey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hailey a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Hailey 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 Hailey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hailey 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 Hailey 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 common is the name Hailey?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.