Bai: meaning, origin & popularity

Meaning & origin

Where it comes from

Bai comes from Chinese.

How it developed

From Chinese 白 (Bái).

The story

Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1979. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.

From dated birth records

Bai through the years

Babies since 1880: 15; 5 boys · 10 girls
Most popular year: 1979; 5 babies
2025: 0; Outside the ranked list
2021–25 vs 2016–20: —; Too few births to compare

Boys Girls

Bai in U.S. Social Security birth records, 1979–2025, per million births of each sex. Years with fewer than five births for a sex are not published and appear as zero. Use the arrow keys to step through years.

By the numbers

The most recent published U.S. birth count for girls is 5 in 2005. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 757 as a first name in 2020; 5,155 as a surname in 2020.

From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.

Bai’s family of names

In English usage, Bai as a surname shares an earlier linguistic root with Bach. Bai has a related form in Bay. In Greek usage, Bai as a surname is a transliteration of Μπάη.

Walk Bai’s family in the name graph

Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.

Hover or tab through the constellation to see how each name is related. Bigger dots are names more people in the U.S. share.

Around the world

Bai has relatives in 4 languages. Lines run from its Chinese roots to each of them.

Chinesewhere Bai comes from · 1 name

白

Each dot marks where a language is rooted, not where people with the name live today. Bigger dots hold more names. Language locations from Glottolog (CC BY 4.0); map from Natural Earth.

Nicknames & forms 1

Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.

Bayvariant

Spellings & scripts 3

The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.

Across languages 5

Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.

People named Bai

Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.

Similar names

If you love Bai, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.

Chinese

Sibling ideas

Names that share Bai’s feel without repeating its first letter or rhyming with it.

A brother for Bai

A sister for Bai

Your shortlist

Bai