Idamae
Feminine · “labor”
Mae was the great second name of American naming. For most of a century, in the South and the lower Midwest especially, a daughter got a short first name and then Mae — Ida Mae, Ella Mae, Bobbie Mae, Ruby Mae — said whole, every time, as one unit. Idamae is what happens when the records have one box and a family has two names to put in it.
How old is the name Idamae?
Idamae first appears in US birth records in 1901 — 124 years ago. The typical Idamae alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 200 people named Idamae are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Idamae most popular?
Idamae peaked in 1917, reaching #945 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,263 places below that high. See the whole 1917 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ida to Idamae
The story of Idamae
The double first name is a real institution in the American South, and Mae was its most-used second element by a wide margin. Ida came in with the nineteenth-century revival of medieval names, carried by a heroine in Tennyson and by Norman records before that. Put the two together and the result is one of the most characteristic American women's names of the period between the wars. Closing up the space is what paperwork does, and the statisticians then record the result as a name in its own right — which, by that point, it is.
Meaningscholars disagree
labor, and the month of May
Ida is Germanic and its element is usually read as work or labor, though the reading is not secure and a connection to Mount Ida in Crete has also been proposed. Mae is a spelling of May, which is either the month or a short form of Mary — American families used it both ways. The two halves have nothing to do with each other.
How the name formed
- Ida
- Ida Mae
- Idamae
Related forms: Ida · Ida
Pronouncing Idamae
EYE-duh-MAY
Three syllables and two stresses, one on each half, because it is being said as two names run together rather than as a single word. The small pause between them is what keeps it from sounding like one long word.
Nicknames for Idamae
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1901
- Most girls named
- 191754 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #945reached in 1917
- Change vs 2024
- +20.0%6 in 2025, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Idamae in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ida in German — related form
- Ida in Italian — related form
Idamaes among us
people named Idamae are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Idamae
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Maple test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Idamae's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Maple climbed just as high around 1902, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Maple's path sketches the road Idamae is walking now.
Idamae sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Idamae beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Idamae in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both halves are complete standing names, and both are back in fashion.
- It records a genuine American naming tradition rather than a modern invention.
- The closed spelling survives databases, which the spaced version often does not.
- It offers two entirely different everyday names.
- It will be split back into Ida Mae on official documents, and the family will spend time reuniting it.
- It belongs unmistakably to the early twentieth century and is read that way.
- People will try to say it as one word, which produces something no one intended.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Idamae
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Idamaes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Idamae are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Idamae in 2025?
- Idamae ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Idamae?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Idamae — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Idamae with classmates?
- Idamae will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Idamae
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Idamae? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Idamae and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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