Shay

Where Shay comes from

Variant of Shea, from Irish Ó Séaghdha.
— Wiktionary's entry for Shay
  • From a surname
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1953
    First appearance
    #4,595 among girls, 7 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1971
    Peak, #889
    149 babies named Shay — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1976
    Shay Given born
    Irish association football player
  4. 1977
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,621.
  5. 1985
    Shay Jordan born
    American pornographic actress
  6. 1992
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name transferred from the surname.
  • A diminutive of the male given name Seamus.
Namesakes
  • Shay Given · Irish association football player, born 1976
  • Shay Jordan · American pornographic actress, born 1985
  • Shay Astar · American actress, singer-songwriter, born 1981
  • Shay Facey · English association football player, born 1995
  • Shay Sweet · American pornographic actress, born 1978

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.