# Hayes (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/hayes/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | English |
| Meaning | “brushwood”, “enclosure”, “descendant of aodh” |
| Pronunciation | /heɪz/, 1 syllable |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Heyes |
| US babies named this | 21,886 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 20,925 / 961 (4% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 120, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

*As an English locational surname, from Old English hæs (“brushwood”) (see hris) and Middle English hay (“enclosure”), heye. *As an Irish surname, from Ó hAodha (“descendant of Aodh”).

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 16 | 7,561 |
| 2012 | 23 | 5,773 |
| 2013 | 19 | 6,567 |
| 2014 | 24 | 5,533 |
| 2015 | 26 | 5,191 |
| 2016 | 25 | 5,352 |
| 2017 | 67 | 2,615 |
| 2018 | 71 | 2,489 |
| 2019 | 69 | 2,545 |
| 2020 | 98 | 1,953 |
| 2021 | 84 | 2,218 |
| 2022 | 87 | 2,181 |
| 2023 | 79 | 2,321 |
| 2024 | 71 | 2,517 |
| 2025 | 87 | 2,143 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 289 | 778 |
| 2012 | 340 | 697 |
| 2013 | 418 | 605 |
| 2014 | 504 | 546 |
| 2015 | 531 | 539 |
| 2016 | 717 | 432 |
| 2017 | 766 | 408 |
| 2018 | 973 | 343 |
| 2019 | 1,165 | 296 |
| 2020 | 1,451 | 245 |
| 2021 | 1,606 | 229 |
| 2022 | 1,775 | 212 |
| 2023 | 1,755 | 209 |
| 2024 | 2,255 | 160 |
| 2025 | 2,240 | 162 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 3 | 4,678 |
| 2014 | 3 | 4,632 |
| 2015 | 3 | 4,747 |
| 2017 | 5 | 3,449 |
| 2018 | 6 | 3,011 |
| 2019 | 10 | 2,104 |
| 2020 | 11 | 1,935 |
| 2021 | 8 | 2,493 |
| 2022 | 12 | 1,879 |
| 2023 | 8 | 2,546 |
| 2024 | 23 | 1,199 |
| 2025 | 28 | 1,066 |

## People named Hayes

- Hayes Jones, American athletics competitor (born 1938)
- Hayes MacArthur, American stand-up comedian, actor and writer
- Howard Hayes Scullard, British historian (1903–1983)
- T. Hayes Hunter, film director (1884-1944)
- Hayes Gordon, American actor (1920-1999)
- Denzel Washington, American actor (born 1954)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.