Bailey (given name)

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Bailey is a given name derived from the surname Bailey. The most likely derivation of the surname is from bailli, the Anglo-Norman equivalent of bailiff.

Use of surnames as masculine given names is mostly an American fashion of the 19th century. An early American bearer of the given name was Bailey Bartlett (1750–1830). Occasional use of Bailey as a given name in the United States is recorded throughout the 19th century, but it mostly fell out of use by the 1940s. In the 1980s, it saw a resurgence of popularity as a feminine name beginning in the 1980s, popularized by the female character Bailey Quarters in the American comedy television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982), played by Jan Smithers.^[1] In the 1990s to 2000s, there was also a resurgence in use as a masculine name.

Following the US fashion, the name came to be used in other English-speaking countries beginning in the 1990s. In England, it ranked among the top 200 masculine names in the 1990s.^[2] Bailey was the 70th most popular name for boys born in England and Wales and Ireland in 2007 and was the 91st most popular name for boys born in Scotland in 2006.^[3] Spelling variations of the name are also in wide use.^[4]