It is derived from the English surname Haley, which in turn was based on an Old English toponym, a compound of heg "hay" and leah "clearing or meadow".
This use became popular following the surge to prominence of child actress Hayley Mills (b.
Its popularity peaked in the 1980s and early 1990s in the UK and (along with variants such as Haley and Hailey) in the 1990s and 2000s in the US, but since the 2000s has again declined significantly.
[1] Hayley is one of the top 1,500 female names in the US today.
[3] Notable people with the given name Hayley, or variant spellings of it, include: