Ainsley

Where Ainsley comes from

Habitational surname for someone from Annesley, Nottinghamshire or Ansley, Warwickshire, both from Old English anne (“alone, solitary”) or ānsetl (“hermitage”) + lēah (“woodland, clearing”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Ainsley
  • From a surname
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1957
    Ainsley Harriott born
    British cook, television personality, author
  2. 1961
    First appearance
    #5,309 among girls, 7 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  3. 1975
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  4. 1997
    Ainsley Maitland-Niles born
    English association football player
  5. 2013
    Peak, #332
    974 babies named Ainsley — more than any year before or since.
  6. 2024
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #704.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name transferred from the surname.
Namesakes
  • Ainsley Maitland-Niles · English association football player, born 1997
  • Ainsley Harriott · British cook, television personality, author, born 1957
  • Ainsley Bennett · British sprinter, born 1954
  • Ainsley Earhardt · American television host and author, born 1976
  • Ainsley Thorpe · New Zealand triathlete, born 1998

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.