Explore the Family Name Boulay

The meaning of Boulay

French: topographic name for someone who lived by a grove of birch trees, from a collective form of Old French boul ‘birch tree’ (from Late Latin bettulus), or a habitational name from (Le) Boulay, the name of several places in various parts of France. Compare Boulais, Boule, Boulet, and Bouley. Some characteristic forenames: French Adrien, Armand, Henri, Lucien, Marcel, Alain, Camille, Fernand, Francois, Germaine, Gilles, Raoul.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Boulay in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Boulay has seen a slight increase from 2000 to 2010. The rank of the name moved up from 19,007 in 2000 to 18,950 in 2010, reflecting a 0.3% change. The count of individuals with the surname also rose by approximately 8.6%, growing from 1,326 in 2000 to 1,440 in 2010. However, its proportion per 100,000 people remained constant at 0.49 over this period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#19,007	#18,950	0.3%
Count	1,326	1,440	8.6%
Proportion per 100k	0.49	0.49	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Boulay

In terms of ethnic identity, the census data shows a few shifts from 2000 to 2010. While there was a significant increase in the number of people with the Boulay surname identifying as Black (from 2.04% to 4.10%) and those identifying as of two or more races (from 0.83% to 1.39%), there was an observable decrease amongst those identifying as White, from 94.80% to 92.36%. Those identifying as Hispanic also saw an increase, from 0.75% to 1.39%. However, the number of people identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaskan Native were suppressed for privacy reasons.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.8%	92.36%	-2.57%
Black	2.04%	4.1%	100.98%
Two or More Races	0.83%	1.39%	67.47%
Hispanic	0.75%	1.39%	85.33%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.9%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.68%	0%	0%