# Fay (surname)

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

An Anglo-Irish surname transferred from the nickname, Anglicized from de Fae a Norman family that settled in Ireland.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | nickname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 14,849 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,440 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 20,792 people |
| Change since 2000 | -1.0% (14,992 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /feɪ/, 1 syllable |
| Variant spellings | Faye |

## Who carries it

Share of people named Fay 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) | 93% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 1.7% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.8% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.0% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.4% |
| Two or more races | 1.4% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Fay in the United States.

## People named Fay

- Meagen Fay, American actress
- Frank Fay, American actor and comedian (1891-1961)
- Dorothy Fay, American actress (1915–2003)
- Myrna Fahey, American actress (1933-1973)

## Similar surnames

Fahy, Faw, Faye, Foy, Fahey, Fu, Fee, Fey, Fye, Few, Foye, Foo.

## 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.