Ay

surname · Latin script

Meaning: moon

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/aj/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Ay is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Türkiye than in any other country, where it is the 72nd most common surname.

rarermore common
  • TRTürkiye≈1 in 712(inferred from the name graph)
  • AZAzerbaijan≈1 in 6K
  • KHCambodia≈1 in 8.1K

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.

Türkiye (inferred from the name graph)

≈120,000 people, est.

2 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
110 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 712 (inferred from the name graph)

Türkiye, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

moon

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Ay 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 Ay is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
TR Türkiye#72≈120,000 est.≈1 in 712—Ay103
CN China—≈4,200 est.≈1 in 332K—Ay7
NG Nigeria—≈3,500 est.≈1 in 61K—Ay12
KH Cambodia—≈2,100 est.≈1 in 8.1K—Ay14
AZ Azerbaijan—≈1,700 est.≈1 in 6K—Ay11
SY Syria—≈890 est.≈1 in 22K—Ay7
US United States—3901 in 853K390Ay110
CY Cyprus#620≈130 est.≈1 in 9.9K—Ay9

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 — Surname Frequency 2010. 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).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Ay is also recorded as 9 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English surname107 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Germany, United States, Philippines, Türkiye

    Languages: English, German, Dutch

    Also written AeY, Åÿ, A-Y, Âÿ, Äÿ

  • Spanish surname68 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Philippines, Mexico, Peru, Türkiye

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written A-Y, Åÿ, Âÿ, Aÿ, Ãÿ

  • Arabic surname56 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Syria, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco

    Languages: Arabic, Vietnamese

    Also written Ãÿ, Ãý, Aÿ, Ãy, Ày

  • French surname53 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Türkiye, Belgium, Philippines

    Also written Ày, Ãÿ, Ãý, Ây, Äÿ

  • Indonesian surname38 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Türkiye

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written Ay', Ày, Åý, Àý, Åÿ

  • a separate name6 spellings in the group

    Also written Aÿ, Âý, Åÿ, Āy, Áy

  • Hindi surname24 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Türkiye, Pakistan, United States

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Åÿ, Åy, Ãy, Ày, Ãý

  • Chinese surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Türkiye, Hong Kong, China, India

    Also written A-Y, Äy, A'Y, Ãÿ, Aÿ

  • Hebrew surname29 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Israel, Türkiye, United States, Nigeria

    Also written איי, אי, EyE, Aj, Eya

47 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Ay is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Turkish, 1. Yer yuvarlağının uydusu olan gök cismi, kamer. 2. Yılın on iki bölümünden her biri. 3. Güzel, parlak, nurlu.

    as a wordTDK Kişi Adları Sözlüğü (official Turkish given-name dictionary)

  • In Akan, ^de [ade a wgye, ade a yewg ye] a Uiing to he done, custom, duty: gde gbea no kg ne kiirom' akgye no n'ayede, he has taken her into his town to do unto Jier what is customary in the family; - cf, ahyeygde, ahyede, asgde. Kurtz § 19. — ey e-di, F. = \'iyedi, welfare

    as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)

  • In Akan, <5-8 6m [a8§m a w^aye] a word made for an occasion; inven^ tion, fiction, unfounded tale; eyi de, eye ay^s^m kwa (= aaem bi a ennim' kor& na woboapa afa reka se nea ewom', opp. nokwds^m)

    as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)

  • In Akan, ere mire, a bird with red eyes. pr. 2317. yerew, v. [red. yereyerew] 1. to spread, e.g. a fluid, a drop of oil on a garment, a drop of ink in blotting-paper; cf. ba, bae, terew &c. fa kafe no yereyerew adiwo; yereyerew kafe no mu! — 2. ne bo yerew no, he feels disgust or nausea; cf. fono

    as a wordDictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)

  • In cdo, a hollow belt for money, ete 45 Hy 3% onions for clearing out system, HE Wy HAAR cereal for tonic. a5 hy BF cakes stuffed with meat and onions. 2 Ws onion skin, 2B onion and garlic. 4a 0A onion bulbs. , BIA decoction of onions and tea; (used in measles and colds). moon)

    as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

190019502000Georg Ay, b. 1900İsmet Ay, b. 1924Savaş Ay, b. 1954Dilber Ay, b. 1958Aziz Ay, b. 1967Yeliz Ay, b. 1977İhsan Ay, b. 1987Selim Ay, b. 1991Fatma Ay, b. 1992Derya Ay, b. 1998
  • Georg Ayb. 1900DEGerman politician (1900-1997)
  • İsmet Ayb. 1924TRTurkish actor (1924–2004)
  • Savaş Ayb. 1954TRTurkish investigative journalist (1954–2013)
  • Dilber Ayb. 1958TRTurkish actor (1958–1995)
  • Aziz Ayb. 1967TRTurkish cyclist (born 1967)
  • Yeliz Ayb. 1977TRTurkish racewalker (born 1977)
  • İhsan Ayb. 1987TRTurkish actor (born 1987)
  • Selim Ayb. 1991TRTurkish association football player (born 1991)
  • Fatma Ayb. 1992TRTurkish handball player (born 1992)
  • Derya Ayb. 1998TRTurkish actor (born 1998)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalSayın Ay,Dear , (English)
InformalSayın Ay,Hello, (English)

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 32 sources across 18 countries.

Official registers attesting Ay
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010390#53,072
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020362#60,172
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000269#68,360
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 4

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Ay mean, and where does it come from?
moon Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
How do you pronounce Ay?
A machine transcription gives /aj/ (IPA) for Turkish.
In which country does Ay have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 115 thousand people named Ay in Türkiye, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled ay.
How common is the name Ay?
In the United States, the national register counted 390 people named Ay in 2010, about 1 in 853 thousand residents.
How common is Ay compared with other names?
In Türkiye, Ay is the 72nd most common surname of 619,652 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Ay?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

Please leave out anyone's personal details (see Privacy).

Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/ay

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, “Ay” — the 72nd most common surname in Türkiye. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Ay parses inside a full name →