Explore the Family Name Salay

The meaning of Salay

Americanized form of Hungarian Szalay and of Slovak, Croatian, Czech, and Slovenian Salaj, which is a Slavicized form of the Hungarian name.

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

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

According to data derived from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Salay has seen a slight decrease in popularity over the decade. Ranked at 38,833 in the year 2000, it dropped to rank 40,313 by 2010, marking a 3.81% decrease in its popularity ranking. However, the actual count of individuals with the Salay surname saw a minor increase from 535 in 2000 to 543 in 2010, showing a growth rate of 1.5%. The proportion per 100,000 people also shrunk by 10%, moving from 0.2 in 2000 to 0.18 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#38,833	#40,313	-3.81%
Count	535	543	1.5%
Proportion per 100k	0.2	0.18	-10%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Salay

When analyzing the ethnicity of those bearing the Salay surname, according to the Decennial U.S. Census, there was a noticeable shift between 2000 and 2010. Those identifying as White made up a significant majority of 88.97% in 2000 which decreased to 79.74% by 2010 - a decline of 10.37%. The Hispanic representation within this surname increased by an impressive 116.82%, jumping from 6.54% in 2000 to 14.18% in 2010. There was also an increase among those identifying as Black, moving from 1.68% to 2.76%, marking a 64.29% change. While previously absent in 2000, by 2010 there were individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, but no changes were observed for American Indian and Alaskan Native identities. In contrast, those who identified with two or more races in 2000 had disappeared by 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	88.97%	79.74%	-10.37%
Hispanic	6.54%	14.18%	116.82%
Black	1.68%	2.76%	64.29%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	2.58%	0%
Two or More Races	1.31%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%