Nay
UnisexBoys' nameGirls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Nay has been given to 89 babies in the U.S. since 1921. 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 2015, with 9 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 88% boys, 12% girls all-time.
Babies named Nay, 2021
1 in 377,000
Nay 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.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 — Nay over time
In 2021, Nay went to 0% girls and 100% 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 Nay?
Nay had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2021, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 2021
- 1 in 377,000
- 9 of 3,389,958 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 194,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2021
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 261,083 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Nay sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2021 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 261,083 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nay. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Nays were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Nay was born before 2015 — so the typical Nay is around 10 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2010s
- 53.8% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 83.3%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 65
- People you could plausibly meet
2010s — 53.8% of all recorded uses (42).
Is Nay 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 2015 (9)
- Years since peak
- 10
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 26.7% average annual change
Nay around the world
Where Nay 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 & Wales2022–2022#4,646in 2022
- France2022–2022#6,219in 2022
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.
Nay by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Nay
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Nay
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.