Gay
Gay was last recorded in 1982, when 6 babies were given it; 19,367 Americans have been recorded with it between 1883 and 1982 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 11,200 Americans named Gay and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (58% of everyone recorded); the median is 71 years old and half are between 65 and 78.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Gay by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Gay mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Gay is “a female given name from English, from the word gay (“joyful”); rare today.”
Also “a male given name from English.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Gay?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #9,594, in 1982; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
692 babies in 1959, the peak
Gay peaked in 1959, when 692 babies were given it (682 girls, #362 among girls’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 6 | #9,594 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 10 | #6,346 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,159 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 13 | #5,019 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 16 | #4,017 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 30 | #2,577 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 30 | #2,517 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 22 | #3,048 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 59 | #1,570 | 0.04 |
| 1971 | 78 | #1,368 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (95)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 122 | #1,019 | 0.07 |
| 1969 | 127 | #945 | 0.08 |
| 1968 | 169 | #768 | 0.10 |
| 1967 | 178 | #735 | 0.11 |
| 1966 | 235 | #620 | 0.14 |
| 1965 | 302 | #548 | 0.17 |
| 1964 | 350 | #526 | 0.18 |
| 1963 | 381 | #497 | 0.20 |
| 1962 | 445 | #462 | 0.23 |
| 1961 | 596 | #396 | 0.30 |
| 1960 | 626 | #381 | 0.31 |
| 1959 | 682 | #362 | 0.34 |
| 1958 | 488 | #425 | 0.24 |
| 1957 | 584 | #374 | 0.29 |
| 1956 | 528 | #388 | 0.26 |
| 1955 | 496 | #394 | 0.25 |
| 1954 | 632 | #337 | 0.33 |
| 1953 | 579 | #349 | 0.31 |
| 1952 | 643 | #318 | 0.35 |
| 1951 | 541 | #341 | 0.30 |
| 1950 | 481 | #358 | 0.28 |
| 1949 | 488 | #356 | 0.29 |
| 1948 | 472 | #358 | 0.28 |
| 1947 | 542 | #340 | 0.31 |
| 1946 | 485 | #335 | 0.31 |
| 1945 | 395 | #345 | 0.30 |
| 1944 | 397 | #344 | 0.30 |
| 1943 | 487 | #315 | 0.35 |
| 1942 | 388 | #354 | 0.29 |
| 1941 | 367 | #343 | 0.30 |
| 1940 | 308 | #378 | 0.27 |
| 1939 | 338 | #346 | 0.31 |
| 1938 | 323 | #362 | 0.29 |
| 1937 | 340 | #345 | 0.32 |
| 1936 | 319 | #354 | 0.31 |
| 1935 | 266 | #394 | 0.25 |
| 1934 | 236 | #427 | 0.23 |
| 1933 | 227 | #429 | 0.23 |
| 1932 | 217 | #449 | 0.20 |
| 1931 | 166 | #501 | 0.16 |
| 1930 | 155 | #548 | 0.14 |
| 1929 | 114 | #653 | 0.10 |
| 1928 | 91 | #745 | 0.08 |
| 1927 | 82 | #805 | 0.07 |
| 1926 | 80 | #818 | 0.07 |
| 1925 | 82 | #822 | 0.07 |
| 1924 | 59 | #996 | 0.05 |
| 1923 | 69 | #886 | 0.06 |
| 1922 | 55 | #1,015 | 0.05 |
| 1921 | 56 | #1,008 | 0.05 |
| 1920 | 57 | #971 | 0.05 |
| 1919 | 67 | #852 | 0.06 |
| 1918 | 64 | #897 | 0.06 |
| 1917 | 74 | #801 | 0.07 |
| 1916 | 68 | #820 | 0.07 |
| 1915 | 59 | #852 | 0.06 |
| 1914 | 42 | #906 | 0.06 |
| 1913 | 34 | #917 | 0.05 |
| 1912 | 26 | #1,014 | 0.05 |
| 1911 | 23 | #912 | 0.05 |
| 1910 | 26 | #849 | 0.07 |
| 1909 | 26 | #801 | 0.07 |
| 1908 | 20 | #893 | 0.06 |
| 1907 | 25 | #753 | 0.08 |
| 1906 | 15 | #977 | 0.05 |
| 1905 | 15 | #982 | 0.05 |
| 1904 | 16 | #918 | 0.06 |
| 1903 | 18 | #820 | 0.07 |
| 1902 | 17 | #855 | 0.06 |
| 1901 | 13 | #936 | 0.05 |
| 1900 | 18 | #894 | 0.06 |
| 1899 | 26 | #610 | 0.11 |
| 1898 | 15 | #898 | 0.06 |
| 1897 | 13 | #909 | 0.06 |
| 1896 | 16 | #821 | 0.07 |
| 1895 | 10 | #1,082 | 0.04 |
| 1894 | 17 | #724 | 0.08 |
| 1893 | 17 | #728 | 0.08 |
| 1892 | 18 | #696 | 0.08 |
| 1891 | 12 | #813 | 0.06 |
| 1890 | 16 | #677 | 0.08 |
| 1889 | 12 | #770 | 0.07 |
| 1888 | 14 | #700 | 0.08 |
| 1887 | 10 | #756 | 0.07 |
| 1886 | 5 | #1,175 | 0.03 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Gay a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 19,367 Americans recorded as Gay, 93% are girls and 7% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Gay: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Gay, and how old are they?
11,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 58% of the 19,367 Americans ever recorded as Gay. The median Gay alive today is 71 years old; half are between 65 and 78.
The 2020 Census counted 11,736 people named Gay (11,132 women and girls, 604 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 13,067 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1,930 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 7,990 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,320 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 6 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Gay born?
The states with the most babies named Gay are Texas, California and New York, with 28% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 2,022 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| California | 1,347 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| New York | 835 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 793 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 765 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 728 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 690 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Virginia | 564 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Louisiana | 560 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| North Carolina | 468 | not ranked | 0.8× |
Where Gay is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Gay is most over-represented in Utah: since 1910 it was given 2.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Gay with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 28,698 babies since 1880, Gay is the most given (67% of them). In 2025 none of their 157 babies recorded by SSA was a Gay (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Gay
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Gay and names like it
- Compare Gay and GayeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sGay peaked in 1959.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Gay since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Gay: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1959The year the most babies were named Gay.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Gay alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with GMost given first.