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It's easy to find how popular Ashley is now. All you have to do is look it up here on this site and then look at its popularity statistics. Anyway, I don't think it matters. There are still tons and tons of Ashleys around and the name has no chance of sounding fresh and new and quaintly old-fashioned until they're all dead.

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Example: I know a couple who named their daughter Heather in 2006. In 2006, Heather ranked 339. Okay, so no problem with it being overly popular, right? Wrong. Heather ranked in the top one hundred from 1967 through 1998 and for sixteen of those years, 1972 to 1987, it ranked in the top ten. That means that most of us have known multiple adult Heathers who are alive and kicking and in the prime of life. I know that I have. So meeting another Heather, even if she is an infant and toddler, means she's still just another Heather. You've heard it all before.

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Anyway, I've never been able to decide whether or not I like Ashley. It's not ugly or anything, but it seems to me insubstantial and too androgynous. At any rate, really sick of it at this point, as I've known quite a few. It's my son's girlfriend's name.