Gay
Gay is absent from the 2024 data, which means fewer than five births. Its best rank was 315th, in 1943.
- Rank in 2024
- —fewer than 5 births
- Births in 2024
- 0not in the data
- Peak year
- 1959682 births
- Best rank
- #315in 1943
- Since 1886
- 19,367people given the name
The story in the numbers
17,985 girls have been named Gay in the United States since 1886, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1959, with 682 births.
The name has all but left use: none recorded in 2024, against 682 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1950, and the 1950s alone account for 31%. It has spent 79 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 1,382 boys have also been given it, 7.1% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Gay | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 41 | |
| 1890s | 160 | |
| 1900s | 183 | |
| 1910s | 483 | |
| 1920s | 745 | |
| 1930s | 2,587 | |
| 1940s | 4,329 | |
| 1950s | 5,654 | |
| 1960s | 3,409 | |
| 1970s | 388 | |
| 1980s | 6 |
In 1959, its biggest year
Gay was the 362nd most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1959 were Mary, Susan, Linda, Karen and Donna. See all of 1959.
Names that rose and fell with Gay
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Janetpeak 1954
- Nancypeak 1947
- Suepeak 1947
- Nanciepeak 1953
- Deloisepeak 1953
- Patriciapeak 1951
- Jopeak 1954
- Bonniepeak 1947
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.