Gabai
surname · Latin script
Meaning: first-person singular past historic of gaber
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ɡəbaɪ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Gabai is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Israel than in any other country, where it is the 19th most common surname.
- ILIsrael1 in 585as גבאי(measured from records)
- QAQatar≈1 in 681as גבאי
- MAMorocco≈1 in 5.3Kas גבאי
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Gabai itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Israel (measured from records)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 181 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 99K (inferred from the name graph)
14,841 named גבאי, 2017
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Cyprus, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled גבאי in IL Israel, MA Morocco, QA Qatar and 2 more, גבי in TN Tunisia, IQ Iraq, Gabbay in US United States and Gabay in CY Cyprus.
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)
first-person singular past historic of gaber
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Gabai 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IL Israel | #19 | 14,841as גבאי | 1 in 585 | 15K | גבאי | 89 |
| MA Morocco | #143 | ≈6,800 est. | ≈1 in 5.3K | — | גבאי | 8 |
| QA Qatar | #69 | ≈3,600 est. | ≈1 in 681 | — | גבאי | 1 |
| EG Egypt | — | ≈990 est. | ≈1 in 105K | — | גבאי | 3 |
| US United States | — | 850as Gabay | 1 in 391K | 1.1K | Gabbay | 181 |
| IQ Iraq | — | ≈790 est. | ≈1 in 49K | — | גבי | 2 |
| TN Tunisia | — | ≈400 est. | ≈1 in 29K | — | גבי | 2 |
| IN India | — | 15 | 1 in 88M | 15 | גבאי | 4 |
| CY Cyprus | — | ≈13 est. | ≈1 in 99K | — | Gabay | 5 |
14,841 people counted by CBS Israel — Family names in Israel, 2017 ("שמות משפחה בישראל 2017"), 2017. 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: CBS Israel — Family names in Israel, 2017 ("שמות משפחה בישראל 2017"); Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls. 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)
Gabai is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
treasurer; Spain
as a nameDicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…
In Russian, Gabai Fedorov, Moscow scribe. 1585.
as a wordA Dictionary of Period Russian Names (Wickenden / Goldschmidt 1996)
In Galician, second-person plural imperative of gabar
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Basque, ( V-m, G-bet ap. A ). "Gaviota ( Sternina paradisea )" A . Ames eta susmo- / gabaiak aidean . Gand Elorri 219.
as a wordOrotariko Euskal Hiztegia (OEH) — General/Historical Basque Dictionary, Euskaltzaindia
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)
- Yehuda Gabaib. 1906ILIsraeli stage actor (1906–1994)
- Genrikh Gabayb. 1923USSoviet film director and screenwriter (1923-2003)
- Ilya Gabayb. 1935AZSoviet writer and dissident (1935-1973)
- Sasson Gabaib. 1947ILIsraeli actor
- David Gabaib. 1954USAmerican mathematician
- Yakir Gabayb. 1966ILbusinessman
- Gal Gabaib. 1970ILJournalist, news anchor and head of 929 - Bible Together project
- Rinat Gabayb. 1973ILIsraeli singer
- Elad Gabaib. 1985ILIsraeli association footballer
- Danny Gabaib. 2000USAmerican film producer and executive
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)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 16 sources across 9 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 173 | #103,655 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 156 | #117,879 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 110 | #139,757 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls | — | 15 | #93,318 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 3 | #193,690 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 2
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
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 Gabai mean, and where does it come from?
- first-person singular past historic of gaber Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Gabai?
- A machine transcription gives /ɡəbaɪ/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Gabai have the most bearers?
- In Israel, the national register counted about 15 thousand people named גבאי, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Gabai?
- In India, the national register counted 15 people named Gabai, about 1 in 88 million residents.
- How common is Gabai compared with other names?
- In Israel, Gabai is the 19th most common surname of 325,634 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Gabai?
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/gabaiThe 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, “Gabai” — the 19th most common surname in Israel. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.