Lay
UnisexBoys' nameGirls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Lay has been given to 40 babies in the U.S. since 1918. 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 2016, with 7 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 70% boys, 30% girls all-time.
Babies named Lay, 2016
1 in 524,000
Lay over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Lay over time
In 2016, Lay went to 42% girls and 58% boys.
A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.
How common is Lay?
Lay had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2016, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 2016
- 1 in 524,000
- 7 of 3,669,531 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 271,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2016
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 363,362 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Lay sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2016 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 363,362 children born in 2016 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Lay. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Lays were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Lay was born before 1926 — so the typical Lay is around 99 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2010s
- 42.9% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 42.9%
- Spread across generations
- Recorded since 1950
- 12
- People you could plausibly meet
2010s — 42.9% of all recorded uses (12).
Is Lay 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 2016 (7)
- Years since peak
- 9
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Not enough data
- Too few years
Lay around the world
Where Lay 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.
- South Australia1983–1983#443in 1983
Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Lay by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Lay
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Lay
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.