Clay
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Meaning
from an English surname for someone who lived near or worked with clay; also a short form of Clayton ("clay settlement")
The story
Clay is the plain-spoken English surname for someone who lived near or worked with clay, and it doubles as the short form of Clayton, clay settlement in Old English. The records show a genuine midcentury heyday: about 4,300 boys in the 1950s and about 5,700 in the 1960s, the era of Cassius Clay's rise, then a steady presence around four to five thousand a decade before easing to about 3,300 in the 2010s and about 2,900 so far this decade. Brazil carries a few hundred. One syllable, an element of the earth, and no pretension anywhere in it: Clay is the rare name that sounds like a handshake, it fits a farmer and a senator equally well, and it has never once left the American records in fourteen decades.
How popular is Clay around the world?
In the United States, 2,885 babies were named Clay between 2020 and 2025.
Clay is on the official records of the United States, Scotland, Canada, Ireland, England and Wales, South Australia and Brazil.
United States
1 in 7,600
In the United States, 2,885 babies were named Clay between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Clay peaked in the 1990s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure. In US birth records Clay has stayed between 2,885 and 5,813 births in every decade since the 1950s: a name everyone knows and few children get.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Scotland
1 in 9,200
In Scotland, 5 boys named Clay were registered in 2024, the 535th most common name among boys that year.
The count never rose above 8 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in Scotland; different spellings count separately but accents are merged at source, and any spelling under 3 in total is suppressed. Source: National Records of Scotland, babies' first names
Canada
1 in 11,000
In Canada, 34 boys named Clay were born in 2024, the 772nd most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
Ireland
1 in 11,000
In Ireland, 5 boys named Clay were born in 2025, the 577th most common name among boys that year.
The count never rose above 5 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
England and Wales
1 in 15,000
In England and Wales, 38 boys named Clay were born in 2025, the 845th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
South Australia
1 in 18,0002017
In South Australia, 1 boy was registered as Clay in 2017.
The count never rose above 7 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Brazil
1 in 500,000
At the 2022 census, 348 people in Brazil were named Clay, ranked 17,190th, with a median age of 45.
Among people named Clay living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1970s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Montevideo City
last on record 1978
Clay is not on the 2011 record for Montevideo, whose registry withholds nothing, so the spelling was not given there that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births in the department of Montevideo (not all of Uruguay) by first name and year of birth, 1940–2011, from the city’s civil registry, which writes names in capitals, almost always without accents; counted as spelling groups (accent and punctuation variants merged), nothing is withheld at source, and 2012 is excluded as a partial year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil, Intendencia de Montevideo, Partidas de Registro Civil de Montevideo (Licencia de Datos Abiertos - Uruguay); 2012 dropped as partial
New Zealand
last on record 2005
Clay is not on the 2025 record for New Zealand, where names under 10 in a year are excluded at source.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from New Zealand birth registrations, grouped by registration year; any name under 10 in a year is excluded at source. Shares divide by Stats NZ’s count of births registered to mothers living in New Zealand, under 1% below the registry’s own count. Source: Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand), baby name popularity over time
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
When you meet Clay
People given the name Clay in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1960 to 2009. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
Keep exploring
The Clay deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Clay truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Clay fits with your family’s names and surname.
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