Hayes
- Pronunciation
- [Hay-es]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Surname.
- Origin
- Irish
About the Name Hayes
Hayes is an English surname descending from the Old English hes meaning "hedge" or "enclosure made of bushes." The surname identified medieval English families originating from places near hedged enclosures or hedge-bordered fields. The surname appears in English records continuously since at least the 12th century.
The name's most consequential American historical anchor is the 19th US president Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) — the Republican president whose 1876 election (decided by an Electoral Commission and the Compromise of 1877) ended Reconstruction in the South. Other notable bearers include American actor Sean Hayes (born 1970, Will & Grace star), American baseball player Charlie Hayes, and contemporary American football player Bryce Hayes.
Hayes's transition from surname to American first name is essentially a 21st-century phenomenon. The name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2000 to the US top 200 boys' rank by 2014 and the top 100 by 2022. The name has been used predominantly for boys but has occasional girls' usage. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the surname-style sophistication, the in-built American-presidential register from the Rutherford Hayes anchor, and the compact one-syllable hard-consonant structure. The name reads as both classical and contemporary American. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — Hay (also shared with various Hay-prefixed names) and the rare Hayes-y each occasionally appear. There are no significant international variants since the name's first-name use is essentially American.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Hayes
US Popularity History (2009–2025)
Annual US births named Hayes by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2024 with 2,249 boys named Hayes (boy rank #160 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #162 for boys (2,240 US births). That's 2 places below its 2024 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Hayes Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Hayes the strongest states are Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wyoming | #62 | 40 |
| 2 | South Dakota | #86 | 149 |
| 3 | North Dakota | #99 | 136 |
| 4 | Nebraska | #107 | 237 |
| 5 | Louisiana | #117 | 465 |
| 6 | Utah | #120 | 431 |
| 7 | Montana | #129 | 92 |
| 8 | Kansas | #143 | 287 |
| 9 | Iowa | #149 | 287 |
| 10 | Arkansas | #156 | 241 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #592 | 199 |
| 2 | New Jersey | #500 | 76 |
| 3 | California | #493 | 734 |
| 4 | Florida | #481 | 380 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | #461 | 284 |
| 6 | Maryland | #458 | 126 |
| 7 | Arizona | #433 | 182 |
| 8 | Connecticut | #389 | 45 |
| 9 | Michigan | #387 | 299 |
| 10 | Washington | #381 | 204 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Hayes in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hazen | Considerate | Female | German |
Looking for names like Hayes?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Hayes to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Hayes against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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