Hayley is an Old English place name — "hay field" or "hay clearing" — that became one of the defining girl names of the early 1990s. Peaked in 1993 with 51,223 SSA records, it's now at rank 1068 and doing the slow work of generational cycling. Hayley is currently a millennial name, but in ten years it will start reading as a vintage choice the way Ashley and Brittany are beginning to now.
Old English Field and Place Name
Hayley derives from the Old English hēg (hay) + lēah (clearing, woodland meadow) — a place-name structure that produced dozens of English surnames and eventual given names. Like Ashley, Hailey, and Hadley, it represents that vast class of English place names that became surnames, then girl's names, in a pattern that recurs every few decades. Old English place-name origins give these names their particular combination of pastoral rootedness and surname polish.
Hayley Mills and the Name's British Origin
Actress Hayley Mills — star of the original The Parent Trap (1961) and multiple Disney films of the early 1960s, likely introduced the name to American audiences before it became mainstream. Her breezy, likeable screen persona gave Hayley a specific warmth in its early American use. By the time the name peaked in the 1990s, the Mills connection had faded into background, but the name's cheerful energy remained. Browse 1990s name trends for the full generational context.
Counter-Reading: The Spelling Proliferation
Hayley competes with Haley, Hailey, Haleigh, and Halie, a spelling proliferation that complicates the name's identity. Hailey has overtaken all other variants in American usage. If spelling consistency matters in your family, knowing that the -ai- form dominates is useful. Hayley is a valid choice and the historically oldest English spelling, but your daughter will be forever specifying which version.