Tinsley is an English surname and place name from Yorkshire, usually explained as "Tynni's meadow", a clearing named after an Anglo-Saxon man. As a girls' name it is a Southern American favorite in the line of Ainsley, Kinsley and Tenley, with the bonus of sounding like tinsel. Tinsley entered the US top 1000 in 2016, peaked at number 721 in 2020 and has fallen back to number 1112 in 2025.