Ashley

Ashley comes from the Old English aescleah, meaning "ash wood." This was a common place name--for obvious reasons--which became a surname. Ashley began to be used as a given name in the 1860's, possibly inspired by Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, who was a well known 19th century social reformer. It is also more than possible that the use of Ashley as a given name came from the common practice of giving a child the mother's maiden name as a middle or second middle name. "Ashley Wilkes" was a major character in Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone With The Wind, which provided a popularity boost to the name. Until the 1960's Ashley was mainly used for baby boys, but once it began to be used for girls, it caught on quickly. Ashley entered the top 10 names for baby girls in the 1980's and it remains there today. As the use of the name for girls rose, baby boys named Ashley became fewer and fewer, and the name disappeared from their top 1000 list after 1994. Alternate spellings of the name will be listed seperately at some point, but include Ashlee, Ashleigh, and Ashlie.