Ĵaý

given name · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Ĵaý is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In the Philippines it is the 17th most common given name. Recorded meaning: From Middle English jay, from Old French jai ("jay"; Modern French geai), either from Late Latin gaius (“jay”), or from Old French gai (“gay, merry”), so named due to its plumage, from Old Frankish *g.

rarermore common
  • PHPhilippines≈1 in 731(inferred from the name graph)
  • CACanada≈1 in 1.3K
  • SGSingapore≈1 in 1.4K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈890,000 people, est.

#394 (measured from records)

of 15M given names

4 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
642 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 731 (inferred from the name graph)

Philippines, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

ĴaýLatin(measured from records)
ג'יHebrew(measured from records)
ჯეიGeorgian(measured from records)
지와Hangul(measured from records)

2 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Jay in US United States, PH Philippines, GB United Kingdom and 4 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Derivation of Ĵaý: each step is the form the one above it came from.
Ĵaý
  1. Middle Englishjay(measured from records)
  2. Old Frenchjai“jay”(measured from records)
  3. Late Latingaius“jay”(measured from records)
  4. Old Frenchgai“gay“gay, merry”(measured from records)
  5. Old Frankish*gāhi“quick“quick, impetuous”(measured from records)
  6. Proto-Germanic*ganhuz“sudden”(measured from records)

From Middle English jay, from Old French jai ("jay"; Modern French geai), either from Late Latin gaius (“jay”), or from Old French gai (“gay, merry”), so named due to its plumage, from Old Frankish *gāhi (“quick, impetuous”), from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden”), cognate with Dutch gaai (“jay”). More on the latter etymology at gay.

Sources 9

  • 25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado
  • A concise dictionary of first names
  • A dictionary of surnames
  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland

Attested across 18 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Ĵaý counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Ĵaý is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈890,000 est.≈1 in 1.6K—Jay93
US United States#181164,0971 in 2K160KJay642
PH Philippines#17≈150,000 est.≈1 in 731—Jay189
GB United Kingdom#261≈44,000 est.≈1 in 1.5K14Jay312
CA Canada#215≈29,000 est.≈1 in 1.3K10Jay294
AU Australia#255≈18,000 est.≈1 in 1.4K90Jay294
SG Singapore#134≈4,500 est.≈1 in 1.4K—Jay117

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Evidence(measured from records)

No register attests this spelling yet

None of the official registers or reference works in our corpus lists Ĵaý under this spelling. The statistics on this page rest on person records, and the related names are inferred from the name graph.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Ĵaý mean, and where does it come from?
From Middle English jay, from Old French jai ("jay"; Modern French geai), either from Late Latin gaius (“jay”), or from Old French gai (“gay, merry”), so named due to its plumage, from Old Frankish *g… Recorded by 25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado and A concise dictionary of first names and 7 other sources.
Is Ĵaý a male or female name?
Ĵaý is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
In which country does Ĵaý have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 893 thousand people named Ĵaý in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled jay.
How common is the name Ĵaý?
In the United States, the national register counted 164,097 people named Ĵaý in 2020, about 1 in 2.0 thousand residents.
How common is Ĵaý compared with other names?
In the Philippines, Ĵaý is the 17th most common given name of 486,299 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Ĵaý?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/%C4%B5a%C3%BD

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Ĵaý” — the 17th most common given name in Philippines. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Ĵaý parses inside a full name →