Ashley

• Ashlee
• Ashleigh
• Ashlie
• Ashly

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

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæʃli/

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Ashley (countable and uncountable, plural Ashleys)

1. A number of villages and hamlets in England:
   1. A village in Cambridgeshire.
   2. A village and civil parish in Cheshire East, Cheshire (OS grid ref SJ7784).
   3. A settlement in St Leonards and St Ives parish, east Dorset (OS grid ref SU1304).
   4. A village in Gloucestershire.
   5. A hamlet in East Hampshire district, Hampshire.
   6. A village in New Forest district, Hampshire.
   7. A village in Test Valley district, Hampshire.
   8. A hamlet in Kent.
   9. A village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, Northamptonshire, previously in Kettering district (OS grid ref SP7990).
   10. A village in Staffordshire.
   11. A village in Wiltshire.
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 of America:
   1. A city in Illinois; named for railroad official Col. L. W. Ashley.
   2. A city, the county seat of McIntosh County, North Dakota; named for railroad official Ashley E. Morrow.
   3. A town in Indiana.
   4. A borough of Pennsylvania.
   5. A village in Michigan.
   6. A village in Ohio; named for Col. L. W. Ashley.
   7. A census-designated place in Missouri; named for the state's first lieutenant governor, William Henry Ashley.
   8. An unincorporated community in West Virginia; named for the local Ash family.
   9. An unincorporated community in Wisconsin.
6. A locality in New South Wales, Australia; named for one of the settlements in England.

• 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.

• Ashley County
• Ashley Down
• Ashley Heath

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

Borrowed from English Ashley.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈʔaʃli/ [ˈʔaʃ.lɪ]
• Rhymes: -aʃli

Ashley (Baybayin spelling ᜀᜐ᜔ᜎᜒ)

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