The Tay surname
In the 2010 U.S. Census, 1,736 people carried this name — #16,536 among all U.S. surnames, about 1 in every 169,500 people counted. That is up 23% from 1,410 in 2000.
Where the name comes from
The origin of the Tay surname
Borrowed from Hokkien 鄭／郑 (Tēⁿ), Teochew 鄭／郑 (dên7), Hokkien 戴 (Tè), or a variant of the English surname Tee.
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary (en.wiktionary.org) — entry «Tay» (English), by Wiktionary contributors · licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · excerpt, lightly adapted.
In France’s civil register
France’s register of deaths holds 56 people named Tay.
12 of them were born outside France. Those born in France came from 11 départements, most often Bouches-du-Rhône.
Too few records to say where it concentrates region by region — these are plain counts, not shares.
Where they were born
Fichier des personnes décédées, INSEE — Licence Ouverte 2.0 · deaths recorded in France since 1970, by place of birth.
In Switzerland’s population statistics
49 people named Tay live in Switzerland.
They live in 7 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, most of all in Zurich.
Too few records to say where it concentrates region by region — these are plain counts, not shares.
Where they live today
Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), «Surnames of the permanent resident population by canton», 2025, opendata.swiss/en/dataset/nachnamen-der-standigen-wohnbevolkerung-nach-kanton3 · names with fewer than 3 bearers in a canton are not published.
In the Nordic population registers
23 people named Tay is counted in Sweden.
Sweden’s figure is from 31 December 2022, the last count Statistics Sweden published.
Counted, by country
Own calculations based on data from Statistics Sweden (SCB), surnames with at least two bearers, 31 December 2022 — CC BY 4.0 (names with 20 or more bearers shown).
Who carried it
People named Tay,
with a public archive behind them.
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Waren Tay 1843–1927 · physician -
R. Tay 1923– · badminton player
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Tay Hoe See 1950– · badminton player
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Sharon Tay 1951– · healer
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Joe Tay 1962– · actor
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Joe Tay 1962– · actor
Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons (CC0) · 10 lives in all are documented under this name.
Nearby in the index
Surnames next to Tay.
- Tavel 370 · U.S. census
- Tavella 491 · U.S. census
- Tavera 3,441 · U.S. census
- Taverna 674 · U.S. census
- Tavernier 932 · U.S. census
- Tavitian 239 · U.S. census
- Taylor 751,209 · U.S. census
- Tayon 221 · U.S. census
- Tazi 142 · U.S. census
- Tchang 126 · U.S. census
- Tchen 144 · U.S. census
- Te 1,246 · U.S. census
When the index is not enough
This page says where Tay is.
A volume says what happened to it.
Every page in the index is free and stays free. The Heritage Volume is the long form: the full paper trail, the arms, the crossing — bound, and yours.