Ashley at a glance
- Meaning
- “ash tree clearing”
- Gender
- Girl
- Origin
- Old English
- Pronunciation
- ASH-lee
- Nicknames
- Ash
- Other forms
- Ashleigh, Ashlee, Ashlie
Where the name Ashley comes from
Ashley was first an English place name and then a surname, made of Old English words for an ash tree and a clearing in a wood. It was mainly a boys’ name at first, like Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. In the US it became a very common girls’ name in the 1980s and 1990s.