Klay
Masculine · “clay”
Klay respells Clay, and clay is a genuinely old English word — clæg, unchanged in sense for a thousand years, and the material Genesis says people were made from.
How old is the name Klay?
Klay first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Klay is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,600 people named Klay are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Klay most popular?
Klay peaked in 2016, reaching #1628 nationally. Today it ranks #1867, 239 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Klay appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From clæg to Klay
The story of Klay
Clay was an English topographic surname for someone living on clay ground, and Clayton the settlement version. Henry Clay, the Kentucky senator, made the surname a nineteenth-century American given name. The K respelling appears in the registers from the 1990s and is in current use.
Meaning
clay, sticky earth
From the Old English clæg, 'clay', shared with the Dutch klei and German Klei, from a root about sticking. The word has kept its sense unchanged since the earliest English records. Clay is also a short form of Clayton, from the same word.
How the name formed
- clæg
- Clay
- Klay
Related forms: Clay · Klei · Clayton
Pronouncing Klay
KLAY
One syllable. Klay and Clay are homophones; only the spelling differs.
Nicknames for Klay
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
- 1958
- Most boys named
- 202399 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1628reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- +18.3%84 in 2025, from 71
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.
Klay in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Clay in English — spelling variant
- Klei in German — related form
- Clayton in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Illinois.
Klays among us
people named Klay are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 20,334 born in 2025 was named Klay
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Klay
- #1867
- Klay on the 2025 chart
- #460
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Klay went to 84 boys in 2025, but Clay is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 599, which makes it the 460th most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,407 places above the chart.
- Clay515
- Klay84
About 1 boy in 2,852 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 20,334 for Klay 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
The Trysten test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Klay's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Trysten climbed just as high around 1997, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Trysten's path sketches the road Klay is walking now.
Klay 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
Where Klay is headed
Klay should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Klay beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Klay in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and the word has been stable for a thousand years.
- Clayton is available as a longer formal alternative.
- One syllable, firm, and never mispronounced.
- Clay is the standard spelling of both the word and the name.
- The K will need dictating every time.
- It is an ordinary English noun.
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Klay
Masculine · #1867 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Klays are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Klay are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Klay?
- Klay is one of 2 recorded spellings. Clay is the more common one — 515 births in 2025 against 84 for Klay.
- How popular is the name Klay in 2025?
- Klay ranks #1867 among US boy names in 2025, with 84 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Klay?
- About 1 in every 20,334 US boys born in 2025 was named Klay — 84 in all.
- Will my child share the name Klay with classmates?
- Klay will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Klay
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ishan#1867 · Coby#1867 · Jakhari#1867 · Fidel#1867 · Kasper#1867 · Bryar#1867 · Brighton#1867 · Armon#1867
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Klay? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Klay and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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