How common is the surname Tay?

1,736 people in the United States had the surname Tay in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 177,849 Americans. It ranked 16,536th of 162,253 surnames.

Is the surname Tay getting more or less common?

More common. 1,410 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 1,736 in 2010, up 23%.

Is Tay also a first name?

Yes. Tay 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 Tay

A Chinese surname, carried by 1,736 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex T000 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). Tay is more common than 89.8% of them.

Origin

Chinese origin

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

One of 193 Chinese surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 1,736 people named Tay in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 177,849 Americans. That is up 23% since 2000, when the Census counted 1,410.

#16,536

rank among US surnames

1,736

people in 2010

0.6

per 100,000 Americans

+23.1%

change since 2000 (was #18,196)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#16,534	Cluck	1,737	177,746
#16,536	Divito	1,736	177,849
#16,544	Mian	1,735	177,951

Who is named Tay

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

58% of people named Tay identified as Asian and Pacific Islander, 19% as white (not Hispanic) and 10.0% as Black (not Hispanic).

Asian and Pacific Islander 58%
White (not Hispanic) 19%
Black (not Hispanic) 10.0%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 9.9%

The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Native American, Multiracial are not shown.

Compare: most common surnames among Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Tay

Tay has the Soundex code T000, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code T000.

Other Chinese surnames

All 193 Chinese surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Tay come from?: Borrowed from Hokkien 鄭／郑 (Tēⁿ), Teochew 鄭／郑 (dên7), Hokkien 戴 (Tè), or a variant of the English surname Tee.
How common is the surname Tay?: 1,736 people in the United States had the surname Tay in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 177,849 Americans. It ranked 16,536th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Tay?: In the 2010 Census, 58% of people named Tay identified as Asian and Pacific Islander, and 19% as white (not Hispanic).
Is the surname Tay getting more or less common?: More common. 1,410 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 1,736 in 2010, up 23%.
Is Tay also a first name?: Yes. Tay 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.