Gay Family History
Gay Name Meaning
English (southwestern) French and Catalan: nickname for a lighthearted or cheerful person from Middle English Old French gai Catalan gay ‘cheerful’. In Middle English the term could also mean ‘wanton lascivious’ and this sense may lie behind the surname in some instances. English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of the places in Normandy called Gaye from an early proprietor bearing an ancient Germanic personal name cognate with Wade . Catalan: probably also from the personal name Gai (from Latin Gaius). Galician: habitational name from Gai in the province of Lugo. German: variant of Gau . North German: from a Frisian personal name Gay.7: Americanized form of Polish Slovak and Rusyn (from Slovakia) Gaj .8: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surnames 蓋 (see Gai ) and 倪 (see Ni ).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022