Jay

Jay can be an English bird name, a surname used as a first name, or a nickname based on the letter J. Those routes can produce different family stories. A child called Jay as a shortening of James does not necessarily have a bird name in the same sense as a child named directly for the jay.

John Jay provides a historical surname association. Jay is already one syllable and can stand independently on official documents. Families who prefer a longer formal name have many possible J names to consider, but those names do not all share Jay’s bird meaning.