Hailey is of English origin indicating ‘’hays meadow’’. It’s derived from hale or hales, a surname which denote something that stays in a nook or remote valley.
Hailey originates from heg translated into hay and Leah whose meaning is meadow, clearing or wood.
It started out as a surname in the 13th century but did not enjoy a mass popularity until the 1980s when Halley’s comet was observed in Northern America.
Around 3000 children born around that year were named after the event. However, instead of Halley, the variation Hailey was used.
It grew much in popularity in the 1990s then fell out of favor until the early 2000s when it rose dramatically on name charts. By 2009, Hailey was way too common and has since been a fairly popular girls’ name starting with H in the US.
As from 2018, the popularity of Hailey has started to wane a bit ranking at 79th compared to the previous year when it ranked 72nd most popular girl name with 3,699 occurrences.