Bailee is a variant of Bailey, an English surname for a "bailiff" or "steward", from the Old French baillis. Bailey became a unisex name in the United States in the 1980s, and the -ee spelling followed in the 1990s in step with Kaylee and Rylee. Bailee peaked at number 429 in 2000, stayed in the top 600 until the mid-2010s and has slipped to number 1069 in 2025.