Dictionary

Ashley en · PROPN

Pronunciation

• /ˈæʃli/
• audio
• [ˈæʃlɪi̯]

Etymology

From Old English *Æsċlēah, composed of æsċ (“ash tree”) + lēah (“wood, clearing”). Equivalent to Ash + -ley.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A number of villages and hamlets in England: ▸ A village and civil parish in East Cambridgeshire district, Cambridgeshire (OS grid ref TL6961).
2. (countable, uncountable) A number of villages and hamlets in England: ▸ A village and civil parish in Cheshire East district, Cheshire (OS grid ref SJ7784).
3. (countable, uncountable) A number of villages and hamlets in England: ▸ A settlement in St Leonards and St Ives parish, east Dorset (OS grid ref SU1304).
4. (countable, uncountable) A number of villages and hamlets in England: ▸ A village and civil parish (without a council) in Cotswold district, Gloucestershire (OS grid ref ST9394).
5. (countable, uncountable) A number of villages and hamlets in England: ▸ A hamlet in Bentworth parish, East Hampshire district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SU6440).
6. (countable, uncountable) A number of villages and hamlets in England: ▸ A suburb in New Milton parish, New Forest district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SZ2595).
7. (countable, uncountable) A number of villages and hamlets in England: ▸ A village and civil parish (without a council) in Test Valley district, Hampshire. (OS grid ref SU3831).
8. (countable, uncountable) A number of villages and hamlets in England: ▸ A hamlet in Sutton parish, Dover district, Kent (OS grid ref TR3048).
9. (countable, uncountable) A number of villages and hamlets in England: ▸ A village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire district, Northamptonshire, previously in Kettering district (OS grid ref SP7990).
10. (countable, uncountable) A number of villages and hamlets in England: ▸ A village in Loggerheads parish, Newcastle-under-Lyme district, Staffordshire (OS grid ref SJ7636).
11. (countable, uncountable) A number of villages and hamlets in England: ▸ A village in Box parish, Wiltshire (OS grid ref ST8168).
12. (countable, uncountable) A surname from Old English derived from the places in England.
13. (countable, uncountable) A male given name transferred from the surname.
    • 'There now, Scarlett! You admit it is true. What would you be doing with a husband like Ashley? 'Tis moonstruck they all are, all the Wilkes.' 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter III, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC:
    • In 2017, Katherine Maher, then the CEO of the WMF, re-imagined the nonprofit’s mission as “top-down social justice activism and advocacy,” as journalist Ashley Rindsberg described it. 2025 September 30, Larry Sanger, “4. Revive the original neutrality policy.”, in larrysanger.org:
14. (countable, uncountable) A female given name transferred from the surname.
    • But when Krystal McConnell and Ashley Flynn were named deep in the heart of the '80s the thing was cuteness, feminine delicacy raised to an aesthetic paradigm. --- And everyone named according to a particular version of the pedigree fantasy. Ashley : transplanted Southern privilege, a destiny lying in sorority mixers and a marriage of health club memberships, state-of-the-art appliances and night courses in nouvelle cuisine. 1999, Andrew Pyper, chapter 10, in Lost Girls:
    • I discovered that her full name was Margaret Lowell. I wasn't an expert on Earth names, but I still knew this was wildly inappropriate. She should have been called Lana Bellcurve or Ashley Brainsex or something. 2013, Matt Haig, The Humans, Canongate, →ISBN, page 832:
    • Renee Walters and Ashley Scott started the campaign to buy Freedom after Walters saw a viral post about buying a town “for the price of a New York apartment.” 2020 September 30, Ashley Schwartz-Lavares and Steve Osunsami, “Black Americans are leaving their homes to start their own all-Black communities”, in ABC News:
15. (countable, uncountable) A number of places in the United States: ▸ A minor city in Washington County, Illinois; named for railroad official Col. L. W. Ashley.
16. (countable, uncountable) A number of places in the United States: ▸ A town in Smithfield Township, DeKalb County and Steuben Township, Steuben County, Indiana.
17. (countable, uncountable) A number of places in the United States: ▸ A village in Elba Township, Gratiot County, Michigan.
18. (countable, uncountable) A number of places in the United States: ▸ A census-designated place in Pike County, Missouri; named for the state's first lieutenant governor, William Henry Ashley.
19. (countable, uncountable) A number of places in the United States: ▸ A city, the county seat of McIntosh County, North Dakota; named for railroad official Ashley E. Morrow.
20. (countable, uncountable) A number of places in the United States: ▸ A village in Oxford Township, Delaware County, Ohio; named for Col. L. W. Ashley.
21. (countable, uncountable) A number of places in the United States: ▸ A borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
22. (countable, uncountable) A number of places in the United States: ▸ An unincorporated community in Doddridge County, West Virginia; named for the local Ash family.
23. (countable, uncountable) A number of places in the United States: ▸ An unincorporated community in the towns of Guenther and Knowlton, Marathon County, Wisconsin.
24. (countable, uncountable) A locality in Moree Plains Shire, New South Wales, Australia; named for one of the settlements in England.
25. (countable, uncountable) A small settlement and river north of Rangiora, Canterbury, New Zealand.

Forms

Deriveds

Ashley Down · Ashley Falls · Ashley County · Ashley Heath

Synonyms

Ash

Translations (5)

bg Ашли (name) · ja アシュリー (name) · cmn 阿什利 (name) · th แอชลีย์ (name) · ru Э́шли (name)