Jay
given name · Latin script
Meaning: from a medieval nickname for a garrulous or ostentatious person, from the bird name
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/dʒeɪ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Jay 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.
- 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)
- #394 (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 642 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 731 (inferred from the name graph)
≈890,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Philippines, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
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)
from a medieval nickname for a garrulous or ostentatious person, from the bird name.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Jay 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.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈890,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.6K | — | Jay | 93 |
| US United States | #181 | 164,097 | 1 in 2K | 160K | Jay | 642 |
| PH Philippines | #17 | ≈150,000 est. | ≈1 in 731 | — | Jay | 189 |
| GB United Kingdom | #261 | ≈44,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | 14 | Jay | 312 |
| CA Canada | #215 | ≈29,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.3K | 10 | Jay | 294 |
| AU Australia | #255 | ≈18,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.4K | 90 | Jay | 294 |
| SG Singapore | #134 | ≈4,500 est. | ≈1 in 1.4K | — | Jay | 117 |
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).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Jay 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 English, from OFr jay, gai, Fr geai ‘jay’, chatterer; first attested Peter le iai 1195 P (C)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
In English, modern short form, or from Jay bird name
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
nickname from Middle English, Old French jay(e), gai ‘jay’ (the bird), probably referring to an idle chatterer or a showy person, although the jay was also noted for its thieving habits. FOREBEARS!The name is associated with a Huguenot family from La Rochelle, who settled in New Amsterdam.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, denoting the bird (AIE, OF jay(e), gai, LL gains, from the personal name Gains', cf. Gay 3), probably referring to an idle chatterer or a showw person, although the jay was also noted for its thieving habits. Vars.: Fr.: Geai(x), Geay, Legeay, Lejay Patrs.: Eng.: Jay(e)s.
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
In English, denoting the bird (ME, OF jay(e), gai, LLgains, from the personal name Gains; cf. Gay 3), probably referring to an idle chatterer or a showy person, although the jay was also noted for its thieving habits. Vars.: Fr.: Geai(x), Geay, Legeay, Lejay. Patrs.: Eng.: Jay(e)s.
as a nameA dictionary of surnames
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)
- Alan Pakulab. 1928USnot in their usual nameAmerican film director, writer and producer (1928–1998)
- Harlan Ellisonb. 1934USnot in their usual nameAmerican writer (1934–2018)
- Stephen Jay Gouldb. 1941USAmerican biologist and historian of science (1941–2002)
- Victor Garberb. 1949CAnot in their usual nameCanadian actor and singer
- Brent Spinerb. 1949USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
- Jay Lenob. 1950USAmerican television host and comedian (born 1950)
- Jay Insleeb. 1951USGovernor of Washington from 2013 to 2025
- Jay O. Sandersb. 1953USAmerican actor (born 1953)
- David Juliusb. 1955USnot in their usual nameAmerican physiologist and Nobel laureate 2021
- Jay Seanb. 1981GBBritish singer, rapper and songwriter
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)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 98 sources across 50 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 160K | #339 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 3.8K | #339 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 809 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 104 | — |
| AU Australia | NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present) | 1996 | 90 | #96 |
| AU Australia | QLD BDM — Top 100 Baby Names Queensland (1960–present) | 2004 | 55 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2024 | 14 | #278 |
| AU Australia | AU state BDM — consolidated top baby names (NSW + SA + QLD) | 1944 | 13 | — |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 2017 | 11 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2024 | 10 | #436 |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2020 | 8 | — |
Reference works 8
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- 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
- Is Jay a male or female name?
- Jay 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.
- What does the name Jay mean, and where does it come from?
- from a medieval nickname for a garrulous or ostentatious person, from the bird name. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- What are other forms of the name Jay?
- In the etymology graph, Jacob, Jim and Jake are forms of the same name in other languages; Jimmy, Jimmie and Jimi are recorded short or pet forms; it is recorded as a short form of James and Jaymes.
- How common is the name Jay?
- In the United States, the national register counted 164,097 people named Jay in 2020, about 1 in 2.0 thousand residents.
- How common is Jay compared with other names?
- In the Philippines, Jay is the 17th most common given name of 486,299 given names recorded there.
- In which country does Jay have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 893 thousand people named Jay in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled jay.
- How do you pronounce Jay?
- A machine transcription gives /dʒeɪ/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Jay?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/jayThe 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, “Jay” — the 17th most common given name in Philippines. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.