Gaye
Gaye was last recorded in 1976, when 8 babies were given it; 5,746 Americans have been recorded with it between 1909 and 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,930 Americans named Gaye and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (68% of everyone recorded); the median is 70 years old and half are between 65 and 76.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Gaye by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Gaye mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Gaye is “a female given name from English.”
Also “a male given name from English.”
Spelling variant of Gay.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Gaye?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #6,813, in 1976; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
268 babies in 1960, the peak
Gaye peaked in 1960, when 268 girls were given it, #612 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 8 | #6,813 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,701 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 18 | #3,597 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 12 | #4,649 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 17 | #3,608 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 32 | #2,390 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 47 | #1,863 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 67 | #1,427 | 0.04 |
| 1968 | 63 | #1,424 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 84 | #1,158 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (67)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | 93 | #1,090 | 0.05 |
| 1965 | 128 | #886 | 0.07 |
| 1964 | 155 | #839 | 0.08 |
| 1963 | 158 | #830 | 0.08 |
| 1962 | 204 | #722 | 0.10 |
| 1961 | 229 | #689 | 0.11 |
| 1960 | 268 | #612 | 0.13 |
| 1959 | 259 | #616 | 0.13 |
| 1958 | 194 | #707 | 0.10 |
| 1957 | 193 | #719 | 0.09 |
| 1956 | 222 | #638 | 0.11 |
| 1955 | 196 | #667 | 0.10 |
| 1954 | 206 | #636 | 0.11 |
| 1953 | 222 | #593 | 0.12 |
| 1952 | 219 | #585 | 0.12 |
| 1951 | 176 | #655 | 0.10 |
| 1950 | 156 | #686 | 0.09 |
| 1949 | 162 | #657 | 0.09 |
| 1948 | 178 | #619 | 0.10 |
| 1947 | 210 | #587 | 0.12 |
| 1946 | 130 | #707 | 0.08 |
| 1945 | 128 | #646 | 0.10 |
| 1944 | 131 | #644 | 0.10 |
| 1943 | 132 | #660 | 0.09 |
| 1942 | 98 | #763 | 0.07 |
| 1941 | 75 | #839 | 0.06 |
| 1940 | 89 | #735 | 0.08 |
| 1939 | 92 | #712 | 0.08 |
| 1938 | 80 | #790 | 0.07 |
| 1937 | 80 | #763 | 0.08 |
| 1936 | 96 | #680 | 0.09 |
| 1935 | 82 | #744 | 0.08 |
| 1934 | 46 | #1,023 | 0.04 |
| 1933 | 38 | #1,147 | 0.04 |
| 1932 | 40 | #1,134 | 0.04 |
| 1931 | 27 | #1,432 | 0.03 |
| 1930 | 18 | #1,969 | 0.02 |
| 1929 | 13 | #2,488 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 21 | #1,857 | 0.02 |
| 1927 | 12 | #2,767 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 6 | #4,501 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 9 | #3,486 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 11 | #3,041 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 13 | #2,638 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 6 | #4,656 | under 0.01 |
| 1921 | 6 | #4,697 | under 0.01 |
| 1920 | 9 | #3,434 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 10 | #3,088 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 9 | #3,355 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 9 | #3,188 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 10 | #2,910 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,570 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 8 | #2,735 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 5 | #3,377 | 0.01 |
| 1911 | 5 | #2,618 | 0.01 |
| 1910 | 6 | #2,242 | 0.02 |
| 1909 | 5 | #2,343 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Gaye a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Gaye has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 67 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Gaye: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Gaye, and how old are they?
3,930 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 68% of the 5,746 Americans ever recorded as Gaye. The median Gaye alive today is 70 years old; half are between 65 and 76.
The 2020 Census counted 4,601 people named Gaye (4,550 women and girls, 51 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,430 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 492 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 2,920 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 522 |
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 Gaye born?
The states with the most babies named Gaye are Texas, California and New York, with 38% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 534 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| California | 427 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| New York | 256 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 252 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 238 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 228 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 215 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Missouri | 129 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| North Carolina | 111 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Oklahoma | 101 | not ranked | 1.2× |
Where Gaye is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Gaye is most over-represented in Texas: since 1910 it was given 1.6 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 Gaye 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, Gaye is the second most given (20% of them). In 2025 none of their 157 babies recorded by SSA was a Gaye (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 Gaye
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 Gaye and names like it
- Compare Gaye and GayBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sGaye peaked in 1960.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Gaye since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Gaye: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1960The year the most babies were named Gaye.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Gaye alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with GMost given first.