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Klay

#1,882 in 2025Boys' name

Variant of Clay

Klay has been given to 1,616 babies in the U.S. since 1958. In 2025 it ranked #1,882 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2022, with 103 recorded.

Babies named Klay, 2025

1 in 39,500

Klay over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Klay: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Clay

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Klay means

Klay is a variant of Clay.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Klay → Clay. The family’s meaning is “clay”, recorded in English with the source elements clǣġ.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Clay.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,616 boys were recorded with the name Klay between 1958 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 103 in 2022; its best national rank was #1,632 in 2016.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,692 in 2020 to #1,882 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #2,157 in 2015 to #1,882 in 2025.

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 Klay?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 39,500
84 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 20,300
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#1,882
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
27,357 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Klay sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 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 5001%

Put another way: gather 27,357 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Klay. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Klays were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Klay was born before 2016 — so the typical Klay is around 9 today.

Median birth year
2016
About 9 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
32.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
73.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,616
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 32.9% of all recorded uses (532).

Is Klay 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
+227
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−190
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+275
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.31×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
81.6%
Peak was 2022 (103)
Years since peak
3
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
35.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,632
2016

Spellings of Klay

Klay is not the most common spelling — Alan is, with 31.5% against Klay's 0.14%.

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 Klay is used

Across 2016–2025, Klay was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 14,286 boys, against 1 in 28,068 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in 100,000).

17 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 14,286
  2. 2Iowa1 in 25,000
  3. 3Illinois1 in 33,333
  4. 4Indiana1 in 33,333
  5. 5Missouri1 in 33,333
  6. 6Pennsylvania1 in 33,333
  7. 7Texas1 in 33,333
  8. 8Utah1 in 33,333

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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.

Klay around the world

Where Klay 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.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #2,269
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2015–2025
    #400
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2017–2017
    #415
    in 2017
  • Ireland
    2020–2025
    #577
    in 2025
  • France
    2016–2024
    #5,778
    in 2024
  • Canada
    1996–2024
    #1,964
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1966–2009
    #708
    in 2009

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Klay by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#1,882
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 190
Best rank ever
#1,632
2016
Peak year
2022
103 that year
First recorded
1958
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,616
Count in 2025
84

Names similar to Klay

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

KlausKlaytonFinlayKlarkIlayNilayElayClayNikolayKlaytenFindlayBarclayFlayMacaulayAlayLayKlancyKlaydenFinnlay

Sibling names for Klay

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 Klay

Top names of 2022, Klay's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2016Boys' names starting with K