Name In Spotlight: Jaxley

So I got asked by my best friend to do a search on a family name of his: Jaxley. I thought, wow, that is quite a cool name. But as I was trying to find info on this name, I realized this wasn't just a rare name, but almost non-existant. There are no records of it on any baby name sites, and there are only a few people that have it as a surname (and even less as a first name). Determined not to let my best friend down, I had to find at least something I could tell him about the name, and I did. A very likely source is that this name is related to or a variant of the place name Yaxley, which is also a Harry Potter name. Yaxley means "cuckoo wood", and during the 19th century, the county of Yaxley in Suffolk, England, was written as Jacheslea. It is very likely that from Jacheslea, people eventually arrived at the more pronounceable Jaxley.



The most interesting part of his family tree, was that Jaxley was used as a first name. It's not terribly surprising since surnames have been used as first names for a very long time, at least on boys. But definitely not ultra rare surnames like this one that seem to have popped out of nowhere. There were only a handful of people with the first name Jaxley, almost all most of them baby boys from recent years - however the name has never registered on the SSA extended list, meaning that there never have been more than 4 Jaxley's born per year, making it a super unique name.

I then thought to myself, how has this name remained so rare all of this time? Yes, its a very rare surname, but it's a name that would fit perfectly in today's classrooms and playgrounds - from the modern jax- initial, to the ever so popular -ley ending - it was made for today's parents that desperately want something cool but underused. I'm positive that if Jaxley was used by a celebrity, or appeared on a popular movie or tv series, it would explode in popularity. But then, maybe it's good to keep it a secret, for now at least.

Jaxley makes a fantastic alternative to the very overused Jackson / Jaxon, currently the 2nd most used boy name in America. You still get the spunky nickname Jax, but you get a full name that is very leftfield. So if you like Jack and its variants, but not their huge popularity, my recommendation is: use Jaxley.


Similar names are: Yaxley, Baxley, Huxley, Oxley, Jaxson

Alternative spellings include: Jaxlee, Jaxly, Jaxlie, Jaxleigh


What do you think of Jaxley? Do you think it would fit in with todays naming styles? Could it ever become popular?