# Bey (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/bey/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 5,453 |
| US rank (2010) | 6,265 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 56,619 people |
| Change since 2000 | +13% (4,809 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As a north German and Dutch surname, variant of Beye, Baye, vowel variants of the Danish surname Boye. * Also as a German surname, Germanized from Lower Sorbian baj (“storyteller”), from Proto-Slavic *bajь, related to *bajati (“to tell”). Compare Bay. * As a French surname, from several placenames in France, from a regional variant of bief (“mill-race”). * As an Islamic surname (generally Algeria), from Turkish bey (see Beg). See also Pasha, Agha.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Bey in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 21% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 64% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 5.7% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 2.8% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.1% |
| Two or more races | 5.0% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Bey in the United States, the Ottoman Empire, Algeria and Canada.

## People named Bey

- Yasiin Bey, American rapper
- Turhan Bey, actor born in Austria (1922-2012)
- Maïssa Bey, Algerian writer
- Salome Bey, American-born Canadian singer-songwriter, composer, and actress (1933-2020)
- Tyler Bey, American basketball player (born 1998)
- Andy Bey, American musician
- Chris Bey, American professional wrestler
- Mickey Bey, boxer
- Eqrem Vlora, Albanian politician (1885–1964)

## Similar surnames

Bee, Be, Bui, Bowie, Bowe, Bay, Bae, Buie, Bah, Boe, Bye, Bai.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.