Zay

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Sai in IN India, US United States, AU Australia and 6 more, Say in GB United Kingdom, PH Philippines, CI Côte d’Ivoire and 4 more and Saey in BE Belgium, FR France, EG Egypt and 2 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Zay is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Burmese given name6.2K records spelled Zay81 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia, United States, Singapore

  Also written Žâÿ, Žãý, Žãÿ, Žay, Žâý

• Indonesian given name860 records spelled Zay8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Malaysia, United States, Singapore

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Zãy, Žäÿ, Žaý, Ẑậẏ, Záy

• French surname623 records spelled Zay27 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Côte d’Ivoire, United States, Spain

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Zai, Zaï, Zày, Zäÿ, Zài

• Portuguese given name510 records spelled Zay3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Portugal

  Also written Zãÿ, Zåy

• Hindi given name368 records spelled Zay5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, Malaysia, Pakistan

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Zāy, Zãÿ

45 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Zay is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• ISO 639-3 language code for Zayse-Zergulla.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Azerbaijani, flaw, defect

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 18 years between 1918–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Zay Jeffriesb. 1888USAmerican engineer and metallurgist (1888–1965)
• Zay Hardingb. 1974USAmerican Globe Trekker and actor
• Zay Nubab. 1975ESSpanish actress
• Zay Jonesb. 1995USAmerican football player
• Zay Flowersb. 2000USAmerican football player (born 2000)
• Zay Hilfigerb. 2000USAmerican rapper

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 54 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Zay?

We estimate roughly 5.0 thousand people bear Zay (counting its spellings and scripts) across 6 countries in our records.

In which country does Zay have the most bearers?

Zay is most frequently recorded in India, where it is most often spelled sai.

How common is Zay compared with other names?

In Hong Kong, Zay is the 468th most common given name of 19,389 given names recorded there.

Is Zay a male or female name?

Zay is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Zay mean?

Recorded meaning: Pronunciation spelling of they, usually signifying a foreign accent, often French or German.