Ashley

English

Ashley, Indiana

Alternative forms

• Ashlee
• Ashleigh
• Ashlie
• Ashly

Etymology

From Old English *Æsċlēah, composed of æsċ (“ash tree”) + lēah (“wood, clearing”). Equivalent to Ash +‎ -ley.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæʃli/

• Audio:

  (file)

Proper noun

Ashley (countable and uncountable, plural Ashleys)

1. A number of villages and hamlets in England:
   1. A village and civil parish in East Cambridgeshire district, Cambridgeshire (OS grid ref TL6961).
   2. A village and civil parish in Cheshire East district, Cheshire (OS grid ref SJ7784).
   3. A settlement in St Leonards and St Ives parish, east Dorset (OS grid ref SU1304).
   4. A village and civil parish (without a council) in Cotswold district, Gloucestershire (OS grid ref ST9394).
   5. A hamlet in Bentworth parish, East Hampshire district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SU6440).
   6. A suburb in New Milton parish, New Forest district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SZ2595).
   7. A village and civil parish (without a council) in Test Valley district, Hampshire. (OS grid ref SU3831).
   8. A hamlet in Sutton parish, Dover district, Kent (OS grid ref TR3048).
   9. A village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire district, Northamptonshire, previously in Kettering district (OS grid ref SP7990).
   10. A village in Loggerheads parish, Newcastle-under-Lyme district, Staffordshire (OS grid ref SJ7636).
   11. A village in Box parish, Wiltshire (OS grid ref ST8168).
2. A surname from Old English derived from the places in England.
3. A male given name transferred from the surname.
   • 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter III, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC:

     'There now, Scarlett! You admit it is true. What would you be doing with a husband like Ashley? 'Tis moonstruck they all are, all the Wilkes.'

4. A female given name transferred from the surname.

   Synonym: Ash

   • 1999, Andrew Pyper, chapter 10, in Lost Girls:

     But when Krystal McConnell and Ashley Flynn were named deep in the heart of the '80s the thing was cuteness, feminine delicacy raised to an aesthetic paradigm. --- And everyone named according to a particular version of the pedigree fantasy. Ashley : transplanted Southern privilege, a destiny lying in sorority mixers and a marriage of health club memberships, state-of-the-art appliances and night courses in nouvelle cuisine.

   • 2013, Matt Haig, The Humans, Canongate, →ISBN, page 832:

     I discovered that her full name was Margaret Lowell. I wasn't an expert on Earth names, but I still knew this was wildly inappropriate. She should have been called Lana Bellcurve or Ashley Brainsex or something.

5. A number of places in the United States:
   1. A minor city in Washington County, Illinois; named for railroad official Col. L. W. Ashley.
   2. A town in Smithfield Township, DeKalb County and Steuben Township, Steuben County, Indiana.
   3. A village in Elba Township, Gratiot County, Michigan.
   4. A census-designated place in Pike County, Missouri; named for the state's first lieutenant governor, William Henry Ashley.
   5. A city, the county seat of McIntosh County, North Dakota; named for railroad official Ashley E. Morrow.
   6. A village in Oxford Township, Delaware County, Ohio; named for Col. L. W. Ashley.
   7. A borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
   8. An unincorporated community in Doddridge County, West Virginia; named for the local Ash family.
   9. An unincorporated community in the towns of Guenther and Knowlton, Marathon County, Wisconsin.
6. A locality in Moree Plains Shire, New South Wales, Australia; named for one of the settlements in England.
7. A small settlement and river north of Rangiora, Canterbury, New Zealand.

Usage notes

• Ashley was originally a male given name, but since the sixties it has also been given to women, particularly in the US, where it was the top name for girls in 1991 and 1992.

Derived terms

• Ashley County
• Ashley Down
• Ashley Heath

Translations

name

• Bulgarian: Ашли (Ašli)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 阿什利 (Āshílì)

• Russian: Э́шли (ru) f (Éšli)
• Thai: แอชลีย์ (ɛ́ɛch-lîi)

Anagrams

• Haleys, Halsey, Hasley, Healys, Shealy, haysel, shaley

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from English Ashley.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈʔaʃli/ [ˈʔaʃ.lɪ]
  • IPA^(key): (no yod coalescence) /ˈʔasli/ [ˈʔas.lɪ]
• Rhymes: -aʃli, (no yod coalescence) -asli
• Syllabification: Ash‧ley

Proper noun

Ashley (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜐ᜔ᜎᜒ)

1. a female given name from English, of 2000s and later Philippines usage