Head to head · Girls' names
Macie vs Mya
#438 vs #443 in 2025
Macie is a whisker ahead (#438 vs #443 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Macie is climbing the charts fast, Mya is stepping back from its peak.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Macie leads 4 measures of 6; Mya leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Macie #883, Mya — — Macie higher
- 1890s: Macie #749, Mya — — Macie higher
- 1900s: Macie #675, Mya — — Macie higher
- 1910s: Macie #724, Mya — — Macie higher
- 1920s: Macie #909, Mya — — Macie higher
- 1930s: Macie #1174, Mya — — Macie higher
- 1940s: Macie #1960, Mya — — Macie higher
- 1950s: Macie #3267, Mya #5928 — Macie higher
- 1960s: Macie #4445, Mya #4083 — Mya higher
- 1970s: Macie #4152, Mya #2488 — Mya higher
- 1980s: Macie #3595, Mya #2034 — Mya higher
- 1990s: Macie #895, Mya #1149 — Macie higher
- 2000s: Macie #458, Mya #120 — Mya higher
- 2010s: Macie #426, Mya #148 — Mya higher
- 2020s: Macie #495, Mya #328 — Mya higher
Macie stood higher in 9 of 15 decades; Mya has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Macie | Mya |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #883 | — |
| 1890s | #749 | — |
| 1900s | #675 | — |
| 1910s | #724 | — |
| 1920s | #909 | — |
| 1930s | #1174 | — |
| 1940s | #1960 | — |
| 1950s | #3267 | #5928 |
| 1960s | #4445 | #4083 |
| 1970s | #4152 | #2488 |
| 1980s | #3595 | #2034 |
| 1990s | #895 | #1149 |
| 2000s | #458 | #120 |
| 2010s | #426 | #148 |
| 2020s | #495 | #328 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Macie
Not charting outside the US.
Mya
- France#68
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Macie
Either "from Macy" (a place in Normandy) or a medieval pet form of Matthew, "gift of God"
Macy the surname has two respectable origins that scholars have never fully separated. One traces it to Norman place names such as Macy and Massy, built on the Gallo-Roman personal name Maccius. The other traces it to Mace, an English short form of Mahieu — the Norman French version of Matthew, from Hebrew Mattityahu, "gift of God." Both roads end at the same surname, and the given name inherits both.
Mace → Macey → Macy → Macie
How it traveled
The name arrived in English as a surname carried by Norman families after the Conquest, spelled Macy, Macey and Massey among others, and it stayed a surname for centuries. American parents began borrowing surnames as girls' first names in earnest in the twentieth century, and Macy joined that group; Macie is the respelling that makes the pronunciation obvious on paper.
Mya
Generally read as a short spelling of Maya/Maia; the underlying roots compete
Maia is the Greek name of the eldest Pleiad, tied by ancient writers to a word for mother or nurse, and the month of May carries the same name. In Sanskrit, māyā means illusion or magic. Maya is also long established as a Hebrew given name. Separately, mya is the Burmese word for emerald and appears in Burmese names. A three-letter spelling inherits all of these rather than settling them.
Maia → Maya → Mya
How it traveled
The name behind this spelling runs back to Greek Maia, the eldest of the Pleiades and, in the myths, the mother of Hermes; Roman writers connected her to the month of May. Along a different road entirely, māyā is a Sanskrit word, and Maya has its own long life as a Hebrew name — three traditions that arrived at nearly the same sound independently.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Macie
MAY-see
Stress on the first syllable. The -ie ending signals the see sound clearly, which is much of why this spelling exists.
- Mace — The oldest layer of the name itself, used informally; also stands alone as a surname-style name.
- Mae — Informal, drawn from the first syllable; a long-established given name in its own right.
- Macie Mae — A double-name pairing in real use, especially in the American South.
Mya
MY-ah
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with the second half of Sophia's cousin Maya. A minority of speakers see the spelling and try MEE-ah, mistaking it for Mia — expect to correct that occasionally.
- My — Informal clipping used within families; rarely written down.
- Mymy — A doubled pet form, mostly used by parents and siblings in early childhood.
- Mya-Mya — Reduplicated affectionate form heard at home rather than in school or on paper.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Macie if you want…
- a name on the way upup 91 places on the charts in five years
Choose Mya if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsMya is stepping back from its peak
- a name that charts abroad tooMya is on the national lists of France
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Macie
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds — an American reader gets MAY-see right on the first try, with no coaching.
- Two short syllables, easy to call across a yard and easy for a small child to say and write.
- On record in the United States for well over a century, so it is a new-feeling spelling with old roots behind it.
To consider
- Macy, Maci, Macey and Macie all circulate, and none of them is the default. Anyone with this name will spend a lifetime saying "with an i-e at the end," and will get the other spellings on mail and coffee cups.
- Macy's, the department store, is known everywhere in the United States. The spellings differ, but the sound does not, and the association will come up.
- Nearly everyone carrying this spelling is a child or teenager, so it reads as distinctly contemporary rather than as a name passed down. That may be exactly the point, or worth a second thought.
Mya
Strengths
- Three letters, two syllables, every sound plain in English — a child can write it early and say it clearly.
- Sits inside a large family of related names — Maya, Maia, Maja, Mia — so it reads as recognizable rather than invented anywhere in Europe.
- Charts in France as well as the United States, and the Maya form is at home in Hebrew, Polish, German and Greek.
To consider
- The spelling competes with Maya, Maia and Maja, and with Mia beside it. She will likely spell it aloud for life, and forms will sometimes come back with the a added.
- Because the name climbed and is now easing back, its bearers cluster heavily among teenagers and young adults rather than spreading evenly across the generations.
- At three letters it gives little to work with in a long surname or a hyphenated one; the whole name can end up very short. Some parents pair it with a longer middle name for balance.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Macie
49%chance Macie feels dated by 2040
Macie is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
Mya
66%chance Mya feels dated by 2040
Mya is coming down from a big peak (#97 in 2009). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Macie and Mya in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Macie and Mya?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap
More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Quiet perennials: a century old, never popular
- Beloved classics quietly disappearing
- Three-letter names: tiny and complete
- France's favorites still rare in America
- all guides
Where Macie and Mya each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Macie or Mya — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Macie or Mya?
- Macie, in 2025: Macie ranked #438 with 703 babies; Mya ranked #443 with 697 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Macie or Mya?
- Macie. Over the last five years Macie moved up 91 places; Mya moved down 200 places.
- Which is the older name, Macie or Mya?
- Macie entered the US charts in 1882; Mya entered the US charts in 1954. On the American record, Macie is the older name.
- How many people are named Macie and Mya?
- About 21,000 people named Macie are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 62,000 people named Mya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Macies or Myas in the classroom?
- Macie will almost certainly be the only one in school. Mya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Macie, Mya and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap