Maci
Feminine
Maci is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 21,342 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
Maci is the trimmed, -i-ending cousin of Macy, a name that reached English speakers as a surname and only later became something to call a daughter. Behind it sit small villages in Normandy — Macey, Massy — whose names traveled to England with Norman landholders and became a family name there. Said aloud it is two easy beats, MAY-see, ending on the same bright vowel as Lucy and Josie.
How old is the name Maci?
Maci first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Maci alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 21,000 people named Maci are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maci most popular?
Maci peaked in 2011, reaching #180 nationally. Today it ranks #770, 590 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Where it comes from
From Maccius to Maci
The story of Maci
The trail begins with place names in Normandy — Macey, Massy — estates named after a Roman-era owner. Families from those places carried the name to England after the Norman conquest, where it settled into the surname Macy, and from England to America, where it became a well-known New England family name and, later, the name over a department store door. American parents began using Macy as a first name for girls in the twentieth century, part of a long habit of promoting surnames to given names. Maci is one of the respellings that followed, swapping the final -y for -i in the same way Kaci, Jaci and Lexi did.
Meaningscholars disagree
from Norman place names Macey and Massy, themselves built on an old personal name
The surname route is well documented: Macy comes from localities in Normandy named for a Gallo-Roman landholder called something like Maccius. What that underlying name meant is where scholars part ways — some trace it to a Latin personal name, others link the medieval French form Macé to Matthieu, the French Matthew. A separate popular gloss, 'weapon' from Old French for mace, is folk etymology rather than record.
How the name formed
- Maccius
- Macey / Massy
- Macy
- Maci
Related forms: Macy · Macie · Macey · Macé
Pronouncing Maci
MAY-see
Two syllables, stress on the first. The final -i sounds exactly like the -y of Macy, so the pronunciation gives no clue to the spelling.
Nicknames for Maci
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
- 1973
- Most girls named
- 20111,737 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #180reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −1.1%352 in 2025, from 356
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.
Maci in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Macy in English — spelling variant
- Macie in English — spelling variant
- Macey in English — spelling variant
- Macé in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio.
Macis among us
people named Maci are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,566 born in 2025 was named Maci
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maci
- #770
- Maci on the 2025 chart
- #388
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maci went to 352 girls in 2025, but Macy, Mazi and Mazy are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 768, which makes it the 388th most-given girls’ name of the year — 382 places above the chart.
- Macy390
- Maci352
- Mazi15
- Mazy11
About 1 girl in 2,093 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,566 for Maci itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Sonja test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maci's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sonja climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sonja's path sketches the road Maci is walking now.
Maci 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
Where Maci is headed
Maci is easing off slowly — about 28% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Maci beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maci in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, two syllables, and instantly sayable — no one has to ask how to pronounce it.
- The sound is already familiar to American ears through Macy, so it needs no explaining even where the spelling is new.
- Rare enough in any one school that it rarely needs a last initial, while never sounding invented.
- Stands on a documented surname line running back through England to Normandy.
- Expect to spell it out for life. Macy, Macie and Macey are all in use, and most people will write one of those first when they hear it.
- The -i ending places the name firmly in a recent stretch of American naming fashion, so it reads as belonging to a particular generation rather than as a classic.
- There is no longer formal version to fall back on — Maci is already the whole name, on the diploma as well as the soccer roster. Some families like that; others miss having a grown-up option in reserve.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Maci to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Maci
Feminine · #770 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Macis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 21,000 people named Maci are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maci?
- Maci is one of 4 recorded spellings. Macy is the more common one — 390 births in 2025 against 352 for Maci.
- How popular is the name Maci in 2025?
- Maci ranks #770 among US girl names in 2025, with 352 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maci?
- About 1 in every 4,566 US girls born in 2025 was named Maci — 352 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maci with classmates?
- Maci will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maci
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dulce#770 · Freyja#770 · Christina#770 · Laylani#768 · Indy#768 · Malaya#774 · Azari#766 · Keziah#766
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maci? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maci and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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