# Tay (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/tay/  
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 and girls |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 260 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 205 / 55 (21% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 105, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

Borrowed from Hokkien 鄭／郑 (Tēⁿ), Teochew 鄭／郑 (dên7), Hokkien 戴 (Tè), or a variant of the English surname Tee.

## 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1956 | 5 | 6,794 |
| 1958 | 6 | 6,034 |
| 1959 | 5 | 7,114 |
| 1962 | 6 | 6,495 |
| 1964 | 10 | 4,606 |
| 1971 | 7 | 7,305 |
| 1976 | 6 | 9,156 |
| 1990 | 5 | 15,050 |
| 2018 | 5 | 17,885 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 9 | 8,226 |
| 2007 | 5 | 14,169 |
| 2008 | 9 | 8,934 |
| 2009 | 7 | 10,840 |
| 2010 | 8 | 9,577 |
| 2011 | 8 | 9,501 |
| 2013 | 7 | 10,605 |
| 2015 | 6 | 11,929 |
| 2017 | 5 | 14,036 |
| 2018 | 5 | 13,870 |
| 2019 | 5 | 13,920 |
| 2021 | 5 | 13,858 |
| 2022 | 7 | 10,729 |
| 2024 | 9 | 8,910 |
| 2025 | 10 | 8,180 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 5 | 2,746 |
| 2006 | 3 | 5,061 |
| 2009 | 3 | 5,556 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 5 | 2,220 |
| 2003 | 4 | 2,857 |
| 2004 | 9 | 1,732 |
| 2006 | 5 | 2,870 |
| 2007 | 5 | 3,095 |
| 2008 | 8 | 2,276 |
| 2009 | 9 | 2,126 |
| 2010 | 5 | 3,332 |
| 2011 | 5 | 3,300 |
| 2012 | 8 | 2,458 |
| 2013 | 3 | 4,685 |
| 2015 | 4 | 3,908 |
| 2017 | 3 | 4,812 |
| 2020 | 3 | 4,608 |
| 2023 | 5 | 3,523 |

## People named Tay

- Lil Tay, American-Canadian internet personality (born 2007)

## 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.