Gay

• French:/ɡe/●(recorded in a dictionary) from Wiktionary
• Spanish:/ɡai/○(machine-generated) model-generated

Readings marked model-generated were transcribed by a model; the others are quoted from the dictionary named.

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Gay, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Enola
• Dick
• Cox
• Mann
• Adolf

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Gay is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate name4 spellings in the group

  Also written Ġāy, Gaÿ, Ǧāy

• Portuguese surname6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, United Kingdom, Philippines

  Also written Gây, Gảy, Gầy, Ǧȃẙ, Gày

• Hindi surname5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Pakistan

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Gầy, Gẫy

88 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Gay is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• English or French translation of the term “Fröhlich” = Gay.

  as a name·The Origin of Jewish Family Names: Morphology and History

• In English, ME gai(e), OFr gai ‘full of joy, lighthearted’, or from a French place, perhaps Gaye (Manche); first attested Osward le Gay 1176 P (Sr)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• nickname for a lighthearted or cheerful person, from Middle English, Old French gai. In Middle English the term could also mean ‘wanton’, ‘lascivious’ and this sense may lie behind the surname in some instances.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• probably from the Catalan personal name Gai (Latin Gains), or in some cases a nickname from Catalan gay ‘cheerful’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• ,3 Now obsolete variant of )'Gae. It was generally a girl’s name, but has also been borne by men, in Ireland as a pet form of Gabriel. Gayle ° Variant spelling of Gail. Its popularity has no doubt been increased by the fame of the American film actress Gayle Hunnicutt (b. 1942). 96

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

• John Gayb. 1685GBEnglish poet and playwright (1685–1732)
• Tyson Gayb. 1982USAmerican sprinter
• Rudy Gayb. 1986USAmerican basketball player (born 1986)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

55 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 30 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Gay mean, and where does it come from?

(i) person from Gaye in Normandy; (ii) nickname for a cheerful person; (iii) from the medieval Catalan personal name Gai, from Latin Gaius Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

What are other forms of the name Gay?

In the etymology graph, Gee and Guay are forms of the same name in other languages.

How do you pronounce Gay?

It depends on the language: in French /ɡe/ (Wiktionary); in Spanish /ɡai/. Transcriptions are machine-generated except where a dictionary is named.

Which countries have the most people with the surname Gay?

In the United States, the national register counted about 32 thousand people named Gay, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled gay. After it come France, Ghana, United Kingdom and Canada; the country table on this page ranks them.

Where is Gay most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Gay is densest in Grenada — about 1 in 1.6 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is the name Gay?

In the United States, the national register counted 32,025 people named Gay in 2010, about 1 in 10 thousand residents.

How common is Gay compared with other names?

In the United States, Gay is the 836th most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.