Gay

Where Gay comes from

Wiktionary's etymology listing comes up empty for Gay.

  • English
  • Vowel-ended
Gay through the years
  1. 1886
    First appearance
    #1,108 among girls with 5 babies, the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1887
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name. From this year on, more girls have.
  3. 1932
    Gay Talese born
    American writer
  4. 1932
    Gay Brewer born
    professional golfer
  5. 1943
    Peak, #315
    487 babies named Gay, its best rank.
  6. 1966
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births, down to #620.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name from English.
  • A female given name from English, from the word gay (“joyful”); rare today.
  • A male given name from English.
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
  • A diminutive of the male given names Gaylord and Gabriel, and similar names
Namesakes
  • Gay Talese · American writer, born 1932
  • Gay Brewer · professional golfer, 1932–2007
  • Gay Seabrook · actress, 1901–1970
  • Gay Hamilton · British actress, born 1943
  • Gay McDougall · American lawyer, born 1947

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.