| Frequency Comparisons | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Rank | Frequency % | Per million people | |
| United States | ||||
| United States (Current snapshot) | 17,979 | 1832 | 0.007 | 67 |
| United States (1880 census) | 3,880 | 1580 | 0.008 | 78 |
| Change since 1880 | +14099 | -252 | -0.001 | -11 |
| Other Countries | ||||
| Australia | 2,542 | 626 | 0.016 | 156 |
| United Kingdom | 2,722 | 2284 | 0.006 | 59 |
| Top States for LAY by Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Total | Rank in State | Frequency % | Per million people |
| Tennessee | 1,676 | 563 | 0.029 | 295 |
| California | 1,573 | 2190 | 0.005 | 46 |
| Texas | 1,333 | 1968 | 0.006 | 64 |
| Kentucky | 1,217 | 538 | 0.030 | 301 |
| Florida | 1,114 | 2003 | 0.007 | 70 |
| Top States for LAY by Frequency | ||||
| State | Total | Rank in State | Frequency % | Per million people |
| Kentucky | 1,217 | 538 | 0.030 | 301 |
| Tennessee | 1,676 | 563 | 0.029 | 295 |
| Oklahoma | 601 | 836 | 0.017 | 174 |
| Missouri | 817 | 906 | 0.015 | 146 |
| Alabama | 647 | 1237 | 0.015 | 145 |
'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!
For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!
For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.
It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.
Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called LAY live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called LAY represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called LAY in Tennessee than any other state, but you are more likely to find a LAY by picking someone at random in Kentucky than anywhere else.
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: Scotland
Language of origin: Gaelic
Ethnic origin: Celtic
Religious origin: Christian
Name derivation: From given name or forename
Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the LAY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.
Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the LAY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.
| Classification | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| White (Hispanic) | 467 | 2.6 |
| Mixed Race | 387 | 2.15 |
| Native American/Alaskan | 191 | 1.06 |
| White (Caucasian) | 13,376 | 74.4 |
| Asian/Pacific | 2,267 | 12.61 |
| Black/African American | 1,293 | 7.19 |
Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the LAY surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.
LAY. 1. Fr. laie, a lane through a forest. 2. Lay, not clerical ; unlearned. In the latter sense the word is used by B. Jonson, H.R. Le Lay, Du Lay, and De Lay.
Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.
The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as LAY.
This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.
Matches are generated automatically by a combination of Soundex, Metaphone and Levenshtein matching.