Humanverse

Ashley vs Asley

American parents have registered 875,722 Ashleys since 1880, against 611 Asleys. Ashley is still ahead, with 1,856 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ashley against Asley, 1880 to 2025 0 15k 30k 45k 60k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ashley Asley

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Ashley has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2024, when Ashley had 2,268 and Asley had 6.

Side by side

  Ashley Asley
Total US births 875,722611
Most in one year 55,26562
Babies in 2025 1,856under 5
Estimated living today 853,000600
Median age today 3436
Peak year 19871987
Best rank 2nd girls1,860th girls
Rank in 2025 164thunranked
First recorded 18801981
Girls / boys 859,857 / 15,865611 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Asleys alive today are over 36; half the Ashleys are over 34. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Ashley and Asley.