Alternatives to Hailey

An emerging unisex surname name. Radley is more common for boys — it could be seen as an updated version of Bradley — but for girls, it's a rare alternative to Hadley and Adley.

All the old ae/ay middle names for girls are back--Kay, Fay, Mae/May, --and Rae is one of the coolest, used as such by celebrities as Mark Wahlberg and Daniel Baldwin. Even more popular in the celebrisphere is the jazzy Ray spelling: among those who used it as their daughters' middles are Bruce Willis, Dermot Mulroney, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, Uma Thurman and Lee Lee Sobieski.

An attractive North Carolina unisex place name, Raleigh's soft sound is particularly appropriate for a girl.

Sadie started as a nickname for Sarah, but their images couldn't be more disparate. Where Sarah is serious and sweet, Sadie is full of sass and fun.

Supermodel Christie Brinkley launched an entire name genre when she picked this breezy occupational name for her daughter in 1998, and it has become more prevalent in recent decades. The Saylor version, which you might consider a spelling spin or a surname-name, is now among the Top 500 names for girls, given to three times as many baby girls as the Sailor spelling. Counted together, Saylor and Sailor were used for about 1000 baby girls in one recent year in the US, versus about 100 boys.

Saylor jumped into the Top 1000 in 2013 and is given to three times as many girls as the Sailor version. That may be because Saylor feels more like a name and less like an occupation or a word. Its spelling near-echoes the hugely popular Taylor, plus Saylor is a traditional surname in its own right. Recorded in the medieval times in Germany, it's related to the word seil which means rope and was an occupational name for a ropemaker, which also relates to sailor.

Meet my sibling, Sibley. Joking aside, Sibley sounds more possible than ever thanks to its trendy -ley ending and the new stylishness of big sister name Sybil.

New York socialite Tinsley Mortimer introduced this one to the hoi polloi. Its similarity to the trendy Kinsley boosts its profile. It debuted in the US Top 1000 in 2016.

A natural phenomenon that makes a stylish baby name. Teen Mom's Kailyn Lowry used it for her daughter, twin to Verse.

Eighties spin on megapopular Whitney that currently ranks higher than the original. Whitley fell out of the Top 1000 for several decades but resurfaced in 2018.

Wylie is one Celtic surname with as much appeal for girls as for boys. Wylie is ripe for spelling variations: Wiley is as appropriate as Wylie but when you spell it Wylei, as Corey Parker did for his son, you're getting into yooneek naming territory.

X marks the spot in names these days, usually at the middles or ends of names, but here is one that puts it squarely up front.

Yardley, a surname redolent of British soaps and perfume, was used for her daughter by Megyn Kelly.

This contemporary creation plays on a couple of trends by applying the attractive Z to the rhyming family of names including Hailey, Bailey, and Kayley. The -ee suffix is the icing on the cake. It first entered the US Top 1000 in 2015.

Zayley -- which may also be styled Zaylee or Zaylie or Zalie, among other spellings -- is a member of the squad of names that include Bailey, Hayley, and Kaylee and is always welcoming new members.