Ashley

English

Alternative forms

• Ashlee
• Ashleigh
• Ashlie
• Ashly

Etymology

From Old English æsc (“ash tree”) + leah (“wood, clearing”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæʃli/

• Audio:

  (file)

Proper noun

Ashley (plural Ashleys)

1. One of ten villages and hamlets in England:
   1. A village in Cambridgeshire.
   2. A village in Cheshire.
   3. A village in Gloucestershire.
   4. A hamlet in East Hampshire district, Hampshire.
   5. A village in New Forest district, Hampshire.
   6. A village in Test Valley district, Hampshire.
   7. A hamlet in Kent.
   8. A village in Northamptonshire.
   9. A village in Staffordshire.
   10. A village in Wiltshire.
2. derived from the places in England.
3. A male given name transferred from the surname.
   • 1936 Margaret Mitchell: Gone With the Wind: Chapter III:

     '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.
   • 1999 Andrew Pyper: Lost Girls: Chapter Ten:

     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 city in Illinois; named for railroad official Col. L. W. Ashley.
6. A city in North Dakota; the county seat of McIntosh County; named for railroad official Ashley E. Morrow.
7. A town in Indiana.
8. A borough of Pennsylvania.
9. A village in Michigan.
10. A village in Ohio; named for Col. L. W. Ashley.
11. A locality in New South Wales; named for one of the settlements in England.
12. A census-designated place in Missouri; named for the state's first lieutenant governor, William Henry Ashley.
13. An unincorporated community of West Virginia; named for the local Ash family.
14. An unincorporated community of Wisconsin.

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

Translations

name

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 阿什利 (Āshílì)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: Э́шли (ru) f (Éšli)
• Thai: แอชลีย์ (ɛ́ɛch-lîi)

Anagrams

• Haleys, Halsey, Hasley, Shealy, shaley

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Tagalog

Etymology

From English Ashley.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: ash‧ley
• IPA^(key): /ˈaʃ.li/

Proper noun

Ashley

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