Ashley / Ashlee / Ashlea / Ashleigh/ Ashlie

Meaning: (Ash Tree Meadow, Lives in the Ash Tree Grove. Derived from a surname and place name based on the Old English word for Ash Wood. Until the 1960s it was more commonly given to boys in the United States, but it is now most often used on girls. Famous bearer: Ashley, the male character in Margaret Mitchell's popular 'Gone with the Wind'.)

Origin: (Old English)
 

Pronunciation: (ASH-lee)

Gender: Uni-Sex

I can’t believe I haven’t added this very common name before. It has great meanings and great variant spellings but it’s a bit too common for me and my characters but if I ever did use it I would use it on a male character because I always think of this name as being the name of the character Ashley from “Gone with the Wind”.

I’ve always wanted two brothers to be named Ashley “Ash” and Hillary “Hill” *see on list of posts* in the modern era as that would be fun to have them be mortified by their now common female names and they being boys, lol! But more than that Ashley and Hillary have long histories of use and interesting people have been named this in past years.

I like the spelling Ashlie and I do like the nickname Ash so this name at least has me there but I have just never had a character come along that I saw as being named any variant spelling of Ashley but that may change in the future. Of course I didn’t create this blog just for me so if a common name like Ashley is what an author is looking for then I hope they enjoy this post and continue to find Ashley to be the perfect name for their character. Or if they never thought of this name but need one for their characters then I hope they find this post and find this name to be perfect for their character, whether male or female.