Tay
Tay was given to 10 boys in 2025, #8,176 among boys’ names; 260 Americans have been recorded with it since 1939 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tay by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tay mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tay is “a diminutive of the unisex given name Taylor.”
Clipping of Taylor.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tay?
#8,176 among boys’ names, 2025
Tay rose from #11,923 in 2015 to #8,176 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 3.1 to 5.9 per million.
13 babies in 2001, the peak
Tay peaked in 2001, when 13 boys were given it, #5,628 among boys’ names. The 10 births of 2025 are 77% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 10 | #8,176 | |
| 2024 | under 5 | 9 | #8,905 | |
| 2022 | under 5 | 7 | #10,723 | |
| 2021 | under 5 | 5 | #13,852 | |
| 2019 | under 5 | 5 | #13,914 | |
| 2018 | 5 | #17,880 | 5 | #13,864 |
| 2017 | under 5 | 5 | #14,030 | |
| 2015 | under 5 | 6 | #11,923 | |
| 2013 | under 5 | 7 | #10,600 | |
| 2011 | under 5 | 8 | #9,494 |
Every recorded year (36)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | under 5 | 8 | #9,570 | |
| 2009 | under 5 | 7 | #10,835 | |
| 2008 | under 5 | 9 | #8,928 | |
| 2007 | under 5 | 5 | #14,163 | |
| 2005 | under 5 | 9 | #8,219 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 6 | #11,192 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 7 | #9,477 | |
| 2002 | under 5 | 6 | #10,507 | |
| 2001 | under 5 | 13 | #5,628 | |
| 1998 | under 5 | 6 | #9,509 | |
| 1993 | under 5 | 6 | #8,585 | |
| 1992 | under 5 | 8 | #6,622 | |
| 1990 | 5 | #15,043 | 5 | #9,345 |
| 1982 | under 5 | 8 | #4,945 | |
| 1977 | under 5 | 6 | #5,771 | |
| 1976 | 6 | #9,154 | under 5 | |
| 1971 | 7 | #7,303 | under 5 | |
| 1964 | 10 | #4,605 | under 5 | |
| 1963 | under 5 | 6 | #4,003 | |
| 1962 | 6 | #6,494 | 6 | #3,998 |
| 1960 | under 5 | 6 | #4,005 | |
| 1959 | 5 | #7,112 | under 5 | |
| 1958 | 6 | #6,033 | under 5 | |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,793 | under 5 | |
| 1955 | under 5 | 6 | #3,840 | |
| 1939 | under 5 | 5 | #3,922 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Tay a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 260 Americans recorded as Tay, 21% are girls and 79% boys. In 2025 it went to 10 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Tay: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tay, and how old are they?
An estimated 241 Americans named Tay and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 13 and 49. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 2,350 people named Tay (976 women and girls, 1,374 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 215 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10.9 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Tay rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 38,844 babies since 1880, Tay is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 10 of their 2,260 babies (<1%), the seventh most given that year.
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 Tay
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
| Name | Recorded | 1930-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Jae | 2,980 |
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 Tay and names like it
- Compare Tay and TateBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sTay peaked in 2001.
- The top names of 2001The year the most babies were named Tay.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Tay alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with TMost given first.