What does is last name "clay" origin and is it a Cajun last name?

Question:The origin of Clay as a surname is English :-
Surname: Clace
Recorded as Clay, Claye, Claies, Clays, Clace, Clayce, Cleys, and others, this is an English surname. It has two origins. The first is residential either for a former inhabitant of a place called Clay, or topographical for someone who lived in an area of clay soil. The derivation being from the pre 7th century word "claeg", meaning clay. Such surnames were among the earliest created, since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided easily recognisable distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages. Secondly it can be occupational for a worker in a clay pit, or who worked with clay as in building with wattle and daub. Job descriptive surnames became hereditary when a son followed his father into the same line of business. Early examples of recordings include Reginald de la Claie in the Pipe Rolls of Essex in the Year 1200, and Nicholas del Clay in the Subsidy Rolls of Yorkshire in 1302. A coat of arms granted to the family is per pale green and black, charged with an ermine lion rampant between three silver escallops. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ralph de Clai, which was dated 1172, in the "Pipe Rolls of Suffolk", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189.

With an English origin, Clay is definitely not a "Cajun" name,
but it is not impossible that the name may have been adopted in the past by someone with Cajun origins.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The origin of Clay as a surname is English :-
Surname: Clace
Recorded as Clay, Claye, Claies, Clays, Clace, Clayce, Cleys, and others, this is an English surname. It has two origins. The first is residential either for a former inhabitant of a place called Clay, or topographical for someone who lived in an area of clay soil. The derivation being from the pre 7th century word "claeg", meaning clay. Such surnames were among the earliest created, since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided easily recognisable distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages. Secondly it can be occupational for a worker in a clay pit, or who worked with clay as in building with wattle and daub. Job descriptive surnames became hereditary when a son followed his father into the same line of business. Early examples of recordings include Reginald de la Claie in the Pipe Rolls of Essex in the Year 1200, and Nicholas del Clay in the Subsidy Rolls of Yorkshire in 1302. A coat of arms granted to the family is per pale green and black, charged with an ermine lion rampant between three silver escallops. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ralph de Clai, which was dated 1172, in the "Pipe Rolls of Suffolk", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189.

With an English origin, Clay is definitely not a "Cajun" name,
but it is not impossible that the name may have been adopted in the past by someone with Cajun origins.

It's Scottish and there are no Cajun last names they are mostly French in origin.

I'm not sure, but I live in South Louisiana, and I just looked in the phone book and there is only 21 Clays listed for Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes, and that's not very many.

The person who said that it is Scottish is correct.
I have relatives from Scotland with that last name.

Clay Name Meaning and History
1.English: from Old English cl?g ‘clay’, applied as a topographic name for someone who lived in an area of clay soil or as a metonymic occupational name for a worker in a clay pit (see Clayman).
2.Americanized spelling of German Klee.

Klee Name Meaning and History
apparently from Middle High German "kle" ‘clover’, either a topographic name for someone who lived near a field of clover or a metonymic occupational name for someone who grew clover to feed cattle.
from a shortened form of the personal name Klemens.

Judging from this, it is anything but Cajun. :)