How common is the surname Shay?

9,212 people in the United States had the surname Shay in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 33,516 Americans. It ranked 3,843rd of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Shay?

In the 2010 Census, 89% of people named Shay identified as white (not Hispanic), and 3.2% as Asian and Pacific Islander.

Who is the most famous person named Shay?

Mildred Shay, American actress (1911-2005), followed by Ephraim Shay.

Where is the surname Shay most common?

Wikidata records people named Shay in the United States.

Is the surname Shay getting more or less common?

Less common. 9,302 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 9,212 in 2010, down 1.0%.

Is Shay also a first name?

Yes. Shay 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 Shay

An Irish surname, carried by 9,212 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex S000 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). Shay is more common than 97.6% of them.

Origin

Irish origin

Variant of Shea, from Irish Ó Séaghdha.

One of 880 Irish surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 9,212 people named Shay in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 33,516 Americans. That is down 1.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 9,302.

#3,843

rank among US surnames

9,212

people in 2010

3.1

per 100,000 Americans

-1%

change since 2000 (was #3,513)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#3,834	McNutt	9,232	33,443
#3,835	Tu	9,230	33,450
#3,837	Galicia	9,229	33,454
#3,838	Javier	9,226	33,465
#3,839	Demers	9,225	33,468
#3,840	Biddle	9,219	33,490
#3,841	Brill	9,215	33,505

Who is named Shay

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

89% of people named Shay identified as white (not Hispanic), 3.2% as Asian and Pacific Islander and 2.3% as Black (not Hispanic).

White (not Hispanic) 89%
Asian and Pacific Islander 3.2%
Black (not Hispanic) 2.3%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.2%
American Indian and Alaska Native 2.1%
Two or more races 1.4%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Shays

4 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Mildred Shay
American actress (1911-2005)
Ephraim Shay
American railroad engineer, 1839–1916
Charles Norman Shay
American writer and veteran from World War II and the Korean War, 1924–2025
Brek Shea
American soccer player, born 1990

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Shay

Shay has the Soundex code S000, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code S000.

Other Irish surnames

All 880 Irish surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Shay come from?: Variant of Shea, from Irish Ó Séaghdha.
How common is the surname Shay?: 9,212 people in the United States had the surname Shay in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 33,516 Americans. It ranked 3,843rd of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Shay?: In the 2010 Census, 89% of people named Shay identified as white (not Hispanic), and 3.2% as Asian and Pacific Islander.
Who is the most famous person named Shay?: Mildred Shay, American actress (1911-2005), followed by Ephraim Shay.
Where is the surname Shay most common?: Wikidata records people named Shay in the United States.
Is the surname Shay getting more or less common?: Less common. 9,302 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 9,212 in 2010, down 1.0%.
Is Shay also a first name?: Yes. Shay 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.