# Tay (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/tay/  
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 | Chinese |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 1,736 |
| US rank (2010) | 16,536 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 177,849 people |
| Change since 2000 | +23% (1,410 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

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

## Who carries it

Share of people named Tay 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) | 19% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 10.0% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 9.9% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 58% |

## Similar surnames

Ta, Tai, Tao, Thao, Thai, Tu, To, Toy, Tew, Tye, Towe, Toohey.

## 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.