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Gaye

Girls' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Gaye has been given to 5,746 babies in the U.S. since 1909. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1960, with 268 recorded.

Babies named Gaye, 1976

1 in 379,000

Gaye over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gaye: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

English

What Gaye means

Gaye has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: distinct naming traditions.

The naming story behind Gaye

A separate documented entry treats Gaye as a variant of Gay. That is a personal-name relationship, which differs from translating the letters of the modern spelling into one universal English word. The linked origin entry identifies the context of this relationship.

One of the source’s documented entries for Gaye records a meaning of goal.

Origin, language, and formation

Gaye is used in English. Its origins include English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gay.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,746 girls were recorded with the name Gaye between 1909 and 1976. Its highest annual count was 268 in 1960; its best national rank was #585 in 1952.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Gaye?

Gaye had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1976, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1976
1 in 379,000
8 of 3,034,007 births
Among girls only
1 in 183,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1976
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
262,878 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gaye sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1976 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 262,878 children born in 1976 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gaye. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gayes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gaye was born before 1953 — so the typical Gaye is around 72 today.

Median birth year
1953
About 72 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
35.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
57.5%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
3,634
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 35.6% of all recorded uses (2,043).

Is Gaye rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1960 (268)
Years since peak
65
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#585
1952

Spellings of Gaye

Gaye is not the most common spelling — Grace is, with 23.6% against Gaye's 0.25%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Gaye is used

Across 1910–2025, Gaye was most concentrated in Oklahoma — about 1 in 20,000 girls, against 1 in 46,304 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

05 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Oklahoma1 in 20,000
  2. 2Michigan1 in 25,000
  3. 3Missouri1 in 25,000
  4. 4Texas1 in 25,000
  5. 5California1 in 33,333
  6. 6Illinois1 in 33,333
  7. 7Ohio1 in 33,333
  8. 8Pennsylvania1 in 33,333

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Gaye has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gaye around the world

Where Gaye ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • France
    1999–2021
    #5,186
    in 2021
  • South Australia
    1944–1993
    #712
    in 1993

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Gaye

People whose public names include Gaye, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Gaye by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#585
1952
Peak year
1960
268 that year
First recorded
1909
Last recorded
1976
All-time count
5,746
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Gaye

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

KayeJayeRayeMayeGaylaShayeGayGaylFayeGaynellGayleneGayleGayatriGaylenGaynelleGayaGaylynJanayeGayleenGayaneGaynaGayliaGaylonGaynel

Names with a curve like Gaye

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Gaye, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

FranCheryleMariannShirleneLouannLynCathieSherrylBonnyKaronDoreneKaran

Sibling names for Gaye

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Gaye

Top names of 1960, Gaye's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1952Girls' names starting with G