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Halley

#3,536 in 2025Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Halley has been given to 4,238 babies in the U.S. since 1910. In 2025 it ranked #3,536 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1986, with 333 recorded.

Babies named Halley, 2025

1 in 77,100

Halley over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Halley: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Halley means

Halley is a given name.

The naming story behind Halley

Wikidata records Halley as a unisex given name. The entity identifier is Q16426686, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,112 girls were recorded with the name Halley between 1910 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 333 in 1986; its best national rank was #580 in 1986.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #4,043 in 2020 to #3,536 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #3,620 in 2015 to #3,536 in 2025.

In the United States, 126 boys were recorded with the name Halley between 1910 and 1986. Its highest annual count was 22 in 1986; its best national rank was #950 in 1910.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Halley?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 77,100
43 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 37,400
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#3,536
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
53,441 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Halley sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 53,441 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Halley. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Halleys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Halley was born before 1998 — so the typical Halley is around 27 today.

Median birth year
1998
About 27 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
32.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
40.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
4,084
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 32.0% of all recorded uses (1,314).

Is Halley rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−805
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+507
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+84
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.00×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
12.9%
Peak was 1986 (333)
Years since peak
39
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
14.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#580
1986

Halley’s breakout year

Among the small set of names that had a single, unmistakable year — a surge well above the years on either side of it.

In 1986, 333 girls were named Halley — about #580 that year — roughly 5.2× as many as in the surrounding years. What the data can’t say is why; the story behind the year is one you’ll likely recognise. Other one-hit wonders

Spellings of Halley

Halley is not the most common spelling — Holly is, with 13.9% against Halley's 0.28%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Halley is used

Across 1910–2025, Halley was most concentrated in Florida — about 1 in 33,333 girls, against 1 in 86,713 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Florida1 in 33,333
  2. 2California1 in 50,000
  3. 3Georgia1 in 50,000
  4. 4Ohio1 in 50,000
  5. 5Texas1 in 50,000
  6. 6Alabama1 in 100,000
  7. 7Arkansas1 in 100,000
  8. 8Colorado1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Halley has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Halley around the world

Where Halley ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2009–2025
    #2,788
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2019–2025
    #780
    in 2025
  • France
    2007–2023
    #6,499
    in 2023
  • Canada
    1991–2018
    #2,940
    in 2018
  • South Australia
    1970–2010
    #801
    in 2010

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Halley

People whose public names include Halley, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Halley by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#3,536
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 507
Best rank ever
#580
1986
Peak year
1986
333 that year
First recorded
1910
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,112
Count in 2025
43

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#950
1910
Peak year
1986
22 that year
First recorded
1910
Last recorded
1986
All-time count
126
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Halley

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

HalimaHaleyHalleeCaileyEnsleyHolleyHalieHalinaTinleyWesleyBexleyHaloHaliRipleyBrileyKeeleyHenleyTenleyEisleyKenleyHalliBayleyKarleyKayley

Names with a curve like Halley

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Halley, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

MonetKeyanaFranchescaMalorieKeyonnaKaleeViridianaKaylanYajairaKeyannaYessicaKeona

Sibling names for Halley

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Halley

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