How Many People Are Named Gay?
people named Gay are alive in the United States today (estimate)
About 1 in 29,650 people in the US has this name
Based on 19,367 babies named Gay in Social Security records from 1883 to 1982, and the share of each birth year still alive in 2025.
Popularity Rank
💎 Rare
Peak Year
692 births
Trend
Last year given
📖 Name Origin & Meaning
Meaning:
From the English word gay meaning "gay, happy". By the mid-20th century the word had acquired the additional meaning of "homosexual", and the name has subsequently dropped out of use.
Source of the meaning, origin, pronunciation and related names: Behind the Name.
Same Sound, Other Spellings
These names are pronounced like Gay in English. Counting Gay and these spellings together, about 11,903 people alive in the US have the name.
⚧ Gender Distribution
Of the babies given the name Gay, 96.7% were girls and 3.4% were boys. The share of girls among babies named Gay rose from 77.7% in the 1890s to 94.2% in the 1970s.
👥 Age Distribution
The average person named Gay alive today is about 71 years old, and 91% are 60 or older. Half of them were between 64 and 77 in 2025.
📈 Popularity Over Time
Gay first appears in the records in 1883 and was given most often in 1959, to 692 babies. The last year it was given to at least 5 babies of one sex was 1982.
Babies given the name each year, 1883 to 1982
🏆 Rank History
Gay has never been one of the 100 most popular girls' names. Its best rank was #315, in 1943.
| Girls | |
|---|---|
| Rank in 2025 | Not ranked |
| Best rank | #315 (1943) |
| Years in the top 100 | None |
| Rank in its biggest decade | #371 in the 1950s |
📍 State-Wise Distribution
People named Gay alive today, by the state where they were born (estimate; state records start in 1910).
More people named Gay were born in Texas than in any other state: about 1,341 of those alive today. Compared with the national rate in the same years, Gay was given 3.6 times as often in Utah, 2.3 times in Texas and 1.8 times in Hawaii.
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