How popular is “Gay” in the USA?

Number of people named “Gay” by birth year

This chart shows how many people named “Gay” were born each year.

Due to changes to population growth and data collection rates over time, this isn't a good chart for understanding popularity.

Popularity of “Gay” by birth year

This chart shows how the popularity of “Gay” has changed over time.

Popularity is the number of people named “Gay” born in that year divided by the total number of births for that year.

Bias in sex for “Gay” by birth year

This chart shows how “Gay” has been used as gendered name over time. The scale ranges from 1 (only females) to -1 (only males).

Sex is a required field in SSA's Social Security Card applications (only 2 options). Most applications are filed around a person's time of birth.

The raw data

This table shows the data used in the above charts.

Year	Count	Proportion	Females	Males	Bias toward female
1883	5	0.000023047		5	-100%
1886	11	0.000043084	5	6	-9%
1887	10	0.000040422	10		100%
1888	22	0.000073462	14	8	27%
1889	12	0.00004153	12		100%
1890	24	0.000079628	16	8	33%
1891	18	0.000062789	12	6	33%
1892	24	0.000071776	18	6	50%
1893	17	0.000052272	17		100%
1894	24	0.000070861	17	7	42%
1895	10	0.000028488	10		100%
1896	23	0.000064339	16	7	39%
1897	18	0.00005188	13	5	44%
1898	15	0.000039323	15		100%
1899	33	0.000097278	26	7	58%
1900	18	0.000039977	18		100%
1901	13	0.000037593	13		100%
1902	17	0.000043958	17		100%
1903	24	0.000062959	18	6	50%
1904	16	0.000039655	16		100%
1905	15	0.000035384	15		100%
1906	20	0.00004668	15	5	50%
1907	30	0.000064462	25	5	67%
1908	20	0.000040929	20		100%
1909	26	0.000050858	26		100%
1910	35	0.000059251	26	9	49%
1911	29	0.000045012	23	6	59%
1912	39	0.000039471	26	13	33%
1913	49	0.000043092	34	15	39%
1914	57	0.000040244	42	15	47%
1915	81	0.000044204	59	22	46%
1916	93	0.000048077	68	25	46%
1917	101	0.00005033	74	27	47%
1918	79	0.000036387	64	15	62%
1919	84	0.000039806	67	17	60%
1920	84	0.000037125	57	27	36%
1921	81	0.000034697	56	25	38%
1922	74	0.000032326	55	19	49%
1923	86	0.000037351	69	17	60%
1924	88	0.00003695	59	29	34%
1925	112	0.000048001	82	30	46%
1926	103	0.000044862	80	23	55%
1927	110	0.000047427	82	28	49%
1928	121	0.000053518	91	30	50%
1929	144	0.000065689	114	30	58%
1930	190	0.000085459	155	35	63%
1931	193	0.000091713	166	27	72%
1932	246	0.000116516	217	29	76%
1933	253	0.000126535	227	26	79%
1934	264	0.000127118	236	28	79%
1935	298	0.000142591	266	32	79%
1936	350	0.000168465	319	31	82%
1937	367	0.000172246	340	27	85%
1938	353	0.000159543	323	30	83%
1939	373	0.000169281	338	35	81%
1940	327	0.000142008	308	19	88%
1941	409	0.000167869	367	42	79%
1942	416	0.00015228	388	28	87%
1943	511	0.000181041	487	24	91%
1944	423	0.000157244	397	26	88%
1945	426	0.000160578	395	31	85%
1946	504	0.000157731	485	19	92%
1947	567	0.000157398	542	25	91%
1948	511	0.000148008	472	39	85%
1949	511	0.000146638	488	23	91%
1950	505	0.000144147	481	24	90%
1951	576	0.000156363	541	35	88%
1952	662	0.000174302	643	19	94%
1953	605	0.000156994	579	26	91%
1954	657	0.000165046	632	25	92%
1955	510	0.000127021	496	14	95%
1956	554	0.000134367	528	26	91%
1957	597	0.00014207	584	13	96%
1958	501	0.000121193	488	13	95%
1959	692	0.000166426	682	10	97%
1960	638	0.000153594	626	12	96%
1961	604	0.000145813	596	8	97%
1962	451	0.000111762	445	6	97%
1963	389	0.000098277	381	8	96%
1964	357	0.00009183	350	7	96%
1965	309	0.000085231	302	7	95%
1966	244	0.000070203	235	9	93%
1967	183	0.000053904	178	5	95%
1968	175	0.000051799	169	6	93%
1969	133	0.00003827	127	6	91%
1970	129	0.000035769	122	7	89%
1971	83	0.000024182	78	5	88%
1972	65	0.000020681	59	6	82%
1973	22	0.000007292	22		100%
1974	36	0.000011842	30	6	67%
1975	30	0.000009936	30		100%
1976	16	0.000005273	16		100%
1977	13	0.000004093	13		100%
1978	8	0.000002521	8		100%
1979	10	0.000003006	10		100%
1982	6	0.00000171	6		100%

Explore other names

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