How common is the surname Gay?

32,025 people in the United States had the surname Gay in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 9,641 Americans. It ranked 1,094th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Gay?

In the 2010 Census, 71% of people named Gay identified as white (not Hispanic), and 23% as Black (not Hispanic).

Is the surname Gay getting more or less common?

Less common. 32,672 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 32,025 in 2010, down 2.0%.

Is Gay also a first name?

Yes. Gay is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.

The surname Gay

A nickname surname, carried by 32,025 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex G000 Also a first name

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Gay is more common than 99.3% of them.

Origin

An English surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname for a cheerful or lively person.

Gay is a nickname surname: from a description or nickname of an ancestor.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 32,025 people named Gay in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 9,641 Americans. That is down 2.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 32,672.

#1,094

rank among US surnames

32,025

people in 2010

per 100,000 Americans

-2%

change since 2000 (was #974)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,085	Sears	32,206	9,587
#1,086	Lehman	32,180	9,594
#1,087	Byers	32,174	9,596
#1,088	Snider	32,148	9,604
#1,089	Law	32,122	9,612
#1,090	Tan	32,120	9,612
#1,091	Lake	32,104	9,617

Who is named Gay

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

71% of people named Gay identified as white (not Hispanic), 23% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 71%
Black (not Hispanic) 23%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.3%
Two or more races 1.9%
Asian and Pacific Islander 1.8%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.7%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Gay

Gay has the Soundex code G000, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code G000.

Questions

How common is the surname Gay?: 32,025 people in the United States had the surname Gay in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 9,641 Americans. It ranked 1,094th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Gay?: In the 2010 Census, 71% of people named Gay identified as white (not Hispanic), and 23% as Black (not Hispanic).
What type of surname is Gay?: Gay is a nickname surname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor.
Is the surname Gay getting more or less common?: Less common. 32,672 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 32,025 in 2010, down 2.0%.
Is Gay also a first name?: Yes. Gay is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.