Ashley, the most popular girl's name of 1991 and 1992, comes from a surname composed of the Old English elements æsc, meaning "ash tree," and leah, meaning "clearing" or "meadow." Together, it translates to "ash tree clearing." The name first appeared on the Social Security Administration's top 1,000 in 1964, but was a top 100 girl's name by 1978 and spent most of the 1980s and 1990s in the top five. Ashley is still given to several thousand baby girls every year and has yet to fall out of the top 175, despite coming close in 2021 when it ranked 171st.
