Ashley is a female given name of English origin. It means "ash tree meadow" or "from the meadow by the ash tree." The name Ashley comes from the Old English words "æsc" meaning "ash" and "leah" meaning "meadow." Ashley was traditionally used as a surname before it became popular as a female given name in the late 20th century. The name Ashley gained significant popularity in the United States in the 1980s and has remained a popular choice for girls since then. Some famous people named Ashley include actresses Ashley Judd and Ashley Greene, singer-songwriter Ashlee Simpson, and Olympic gold medalist Ashley McKenzie.
The given statistics show the annual number of births with the name Ashle in the United States from 1980 to 2011. The name's popularity seems to have peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with a total of 35 births recorded in 1986 and 34 births in 1987.
Interestingly, the name Ashle maintained a consistent level of popularity throughout most of the 1990s, with an average of around 25-30 births per year. However, its popularity began to decline significantly towards the late 1990s and early 2000s, with fewer than ten births recorded each year between 1997 and 2006.
Despite this decline in popularity, there were still some fluctuations in the number of babies named Ashle born each year. For instance, there was a spike in popularity in 2005, with 17 births recorded that year, followed by another spike in 2011, with 6 births recorded.
Overall, over the course of these 32 years, there were a total of 546 babies named Ashle born in the United States. This data provides an interesting snapshot into the trends and fluctuations in naming patterns for this particular name over several decades.