| The girl name Harley [ 2 syll. har-ley, ha-rl-ey ] is also used, though less often, as a boy name. It is pronounced HHAARLiy KEY. Harley is of Old English origin and it is used mainly in English. The name Harley means 'hare clearing, hare meadow'. Derived from hara which means 'hare' ; leah which means 'wood, clearing, meadow'. The first name is from an English family name, which is itself taken from a place name. It was first used in the 19th century as a boy name. See Harley for more info. Harley is rather popular as a baby girl name. The name has been growing in popularity since the 1990s; prior to that, it was of only sporadic use. Its usage peaked modestly in 2003 with 0.050% of baby girls being named Harley. It had a ranking of #312 then. In 2007, it ranked at #481 with a usage of 0.032%, and it was the most widely used among all girl names in its family. Although Harley is used more commonly as a girl name today, there was a period prior to 1992 that it was more popular with boys. After 1993, increasingly the name became more popular with girls than with boys. There were 78% more girls than boys who were named Harley in 2006. KEY: Pronunciation for Harley: HH as in "he (HH.IY)" ; AA as in "odd (AA.D)" ; R as in "read (R.IY.D)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"
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