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I was born in '91, one of the years where Ashley was the #1 name for girls in the U.S. Checking the chart, this means there were 43,479 baby girls named Ashley born that year. (And it's biggest year was actually 1987, where there were 54,853 born but it was still the #2 name; that was a big baby year!) It has similar popularity stats for the surrounding years. And of course, this isn't even counting spelling variants (Ashlee, Ashleigh, etc.).

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Since you're logged in as guest I don't know much about you (particularly in terms of age or where you're fron), but... do you have any idea how many Ashleys I've known? To the extent that Ashley doesn't even give a concrete impression of who she might be based on name alone, because the Ashleys have been from all different cultures / walks of life. It's one of the most common names I've encountered anyone with, ever. It's the 90s equivalent of Deborah / Debra in the 50s! And it's still in the Top 200 names (though it was used under 2,000 times last year).

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Ashley needs to go to sleep in America. Like, a Sleeping Beauty length of sleep. And I know it's a masculine name in the U.K., but given its use here I have a really hard time picturing a man named Ashley.

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Aside from popularity, I cannot shake the "ashes" association from the sound. I mean, I know it's from ash trees, which are plentiful where I'm from and rather pretty; but the name makes me think of ash trays. This is also why I don't like the trending name Asher for a boy.

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Please rate my personal name lists:

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www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/117507
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/109399
hwww.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/132018