Kalay
surname · Latin script
Meaning: tin (element)
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/kaɫˈaj/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Kalay is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Türkiye than in any other country.
- TRTürkiye≈1 in 6.3K(inferred from the name graph)
- CYCyprus≈1 in 42K
- JOJordan≈1 in 171K
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)
- Sources
- 61 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 6.3K (inferred from the name graph)
≈13,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Türkiye, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
tin (element)
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Kalay 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TR Türkiye | #728 | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 6.3K | — | Kalay | 61 |
| PH Philippines | — | ≈130 est. | ≈1 in 843K | — | Kalay | 3 |
| US United States | — | ≈110 est. | ≈1 in 3M | listed | Kalay | 55 |
| MA Morocco | — | ≈97 est. | ≈1 in 367K | — | Kalay | 7 |
| FR France | — | ≈75 est. | ≈1 in 903K | 15 | — | 1 |
| JO Jordan | — | ≈63 est. | ≈1 in 171K | — | Kalay | 1 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 50 | 1 in 346K | 50 | Kalay | 8 |
| CY Cyprus | — | ≈30 est. | ≈1 in 42K | — | Kalay | 5 |
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: the us-wru-surnames-voterfile register; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). 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).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- David Kalayb. 1898ILHebrew author and translator (1898–1948)
- Tal Kalayb. 1984ILIsraeli drag queen and actor
- Yehuda E. KalayIsraeli-American architect
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 21 sources across 14 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 50 | #30,825 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 15 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 9 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 9 | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, voter-file supplement (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | — | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | — | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | — | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | — | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | — | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1911 | — | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1901 | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
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 Kalay mean, and where does it come from?
- tin (element) Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Kalay?
- A machine transcription gives /kaɫˈaj/ (IPA) for Turkish.
- In which country does Kalay have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 13 thousand people named Kalay in Türkiye, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kalay.
- How common is the name Kalay?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 50 people named Kalay in 2007, about 1 in 346 thousand residents.
- How common is Kalay compared with other names?
- In Türkiye, Kalay is the 728th most common surname of 619,652 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Kalay?
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/kalayThe 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, “Kalay” — the 728th most common surname in Türkiye. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.