Declining since 2003, #1,352 for girls today.
Popularity of Hailee since 1979
Babies named Hailee per year in U.S. Social Security records.
Data table (by decade)
| Decade | Girls |
|---|---|
| 1970s | 8 |
| 1980s | 375 |
| 1990s | 3,709 |
| 2000s | 7,427 |
| 2010s | 3,791 |
| 2020s | 1,174 |
Meaning & origin
Hailee first appeared in U.S. birth records in 1979, part of a wave of creative spellings for the perennially popular name Haley. Its peak came in 2003, when the name reached its highest rank. Since then, Hailee has been falling in usage, ranking 1,352 in 2025 with an incidence of 1 in 9,861. The name has shown particular regional popularity in Wisconsin, Colorado, and New Jersey. Like many -lee variants from the 2000s, Hailee reflects a broader trend of phonetic reinvention of established surnames, a fashion that continues to produce new spellings even as the overall frequency of these names declines.
Hailee is a respelled variant of Haley, itself an English surname derived from a place name meaning 'hay clearing' from Old English hēg 'hay' and lēah 'clearing'. The spelling Hailee emerged in the late 20th century as part of a trend of creative phonetic spellings for the popular -lee ending sound.
Where Hailee is most popular
Births per 100,000 girls by state. Press play or drag the slider to watch it move across the decades. The lightest shade means too few recorded births.
“Hailee” around the world
Where Hailee lands in the latest official birth statistics abroad, matched to the U.S. spelling.
France
5
babies in 2024
Sources: INSEE (France).
Nicknames & variants
Nicknames: Hae, Lee
Sibling names for Hailee
Names that share Hailee's style, for a brother or sister.
Names like Hailee
Names whose popularity has moved with Hailee's over the last 50 years.
