Hays
Masculine · “Of the hedge or enclosure”
Hays is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 740 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Hays is a surname from a hedge. Old English haga and Old French haie both mean an enclosure or a hedged place, and someone who lived by one took the name from it — which makes Hays one of the plainest and most ancient kinds of English surname there is.
How old is the name Hays?
Hays was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Hays alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 500 people named Hays are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hays most popular?
Hays peaked in 1880, reaching #909 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 4,490 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From haga to Hays
The story of Hays
The Hay family became one of the great Scottish houses, the earls of Erroll and hereditary Lords High Constable, and their legend has three men turning a Danish rout at Luncarty with a plow yoke. The Irish Ó hAodha are entirely separate and equally numerous. American bearers include Rutherford B. Hayes, whose disputed election in 1876 ended Reconstruction, and John Hay, Lincoln's secretary and later Secretary of State. As a given name Hays belongs to the nineteenth-century surname fashion, peaking in 1880, and it has been rare since; Hays, Kansas, keeps the word visible in the Midwest.
Meaningscholars disagree
Of the hedge or enclosure
Hay and Hayes come from Old English hæg or haga, an enclosure, and from Old French haie, a hedge, brought by the Normans. Both are genuine and the surname has multiple independent origins. A separate Irish Ó hAodha, descendant of Aodh, meaning fire, is also anglicized as Hayes and Hays. The final s may be a patronymic or a locative and does not distinguish between them.
How the name formed
- haga
- Hay
- Hays
Related forms: Ó hAodha · La Haye · Hayes
Pronouncing Hays
HAYZ
One syllable, rhyming with days. There is no ambiguity, though the spelling is regularly written as Hayes.
Nicknames for Hays
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 202425 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #909reached in 1880
- Change vs 2024
- −32.0%17 in 2025, from 25
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Hays in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó hAodha in Irish — related form
- La Haye in French — related form
- Hayes in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Hayss among us
people named Hays are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Hays
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Hays
- #5399
- Hays on the 2025 chart
- #899
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Hays went to 17 boys in 2025, but Hayz is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 29, which makes it the 899th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,500 places above the chart.
- Hays17
- Hayz12
About 1 boy in 58,899 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,475 for Hays itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Hays sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Hays beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hays in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and four letters, about as compact as a name gets.
- Everyone can say it on first sight.
- It has a substantial and documented history on both sides of the Atlantic.
- Hayes is the commoner spelling and will be written for it.
- It reads as a surname and will be assumed to be one on forms.
- The surname has several independent origins, so no single meaning applies.
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Hays
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hayss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Hays are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Hays?
- Hays is the most-used spelling in US records — 17 of the 29 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Hayz.
- How popular is the name Hays in 2025?
- Hays ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hays?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Hays — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hays with classmates?
- Hays will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hays
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rolan#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hays? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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