Tinley is a modern American name taken from an English surname, which is usually explained as a place name formed with the Old English leah, meaning "clearing" or "meadow"; Tinley Park, a suburb of Chicago, carries the same name. It rode the 2010s wave of -ley names for girls like Tenley and Kinley. Tinley entered the US top 1000 in 2011 and peaked at number 795 in 2016, but it has faded to number 2748 in 2025.