Maelyn
Feminine · “Not established”
Maelyn is a young name built the old American way: a short, well-worn first piece finished with -lyn. It opens on Mae, in English use since the nineteenth century, and closes with the soft ending that Evelyn, Carolyn and Madelyn have carried for generations. Two syllables, every sound plain English, nothing in it that needs explaining aloud.
How old is the name Maelyn?
Maelyn first appears in US birth records in 1982 — 43 years ago. The typical Maelyn is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,500 people named Maelyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maelyn most popular?
Maelyn peaked in 2024, reaching #1188 nationally. Today it ranks #1248, 60 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Maelyn
Maelyn comes out of the American habit of building new names from familiar syllables — the same workshop that produced Jaelyn, Braelyn, Kaelyn and Adalyn. The two halves are both genuinely old: Mae has stood on its own as a given name since the nineteenth century, and Lynn was a widely used name in its own right well before it became a suffix people could attach at will. Maelyn itself is recent, appearing in United States records only in the last few decades, and it has stayed a quiet member of that large family rather than a leader of it. It resembles the Breton names Maël and Maëlys, but no documented line connects them.
Meaningnot established
Not established — Maelyn is a modern American formation rather than a name with an inherited meaning.
What is documented are its parts. Mae is a spelling of May, long used both for the month and as a short form of Mary and Margaret. The -lyn ending traces to Lynn, from the Welsh word llyn, 'lake', which reached American given names through surnames and place names. Whether any particular family intended that arithmetic when they wrote Maelyn down is not something the record preserves.
Pronouncing Maelyn
MAY-lin
Stress on the first syllable. Because Maeve and the Breton Maël both exist, a few people will try MY-lin on first sight; one correction usually settles it.
Nicknames for Maelyn
High
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
- 1982
- Most girls named
- 2024201 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1188reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −10.4%180 in 2025, from 201
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.
Maelyn in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, North Carolina.
Maelyns among us
people named Maelyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 8,929 born in 2025 was named Maelyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maelyn
- #1248
- Maelyn on the 2025 chart
- #571
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maelyn went to 180 girls in 2025, but Maelynn and Maelin are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 423, which makes it the 571st most-given girls’ name of the year — 677 places above the chart.
- Maelynn234
- Maelyn180
- Maelin9
About 1 girl in 3,800 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 8,929 for Maelyn 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 Annalisa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maelyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Annalisa climbed just as high around 2000, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Annalisa's path sketches the road Maelyn is walking now.
Maelyn 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 Maelyn is headed
Maelyn looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 18% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Maelyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maelyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Every sound in it is ordinary English, so it is said correctly by most people on first attempt.
- Mae is a ready-made short form that already stands alone as a name, which gives the child a formal and an informal option from day one.
- The -lyn ending is among the most familiar in American naming, so the name registers as recognizable even to someone meeting it for the first time.
- Two syllables with the stress up front — it sits easily beside both short and long surnames.
- Expect to spell it. Maelynn, Maelin, Maylin and Maelyne are all live variants, and there is no default the way there is with Madeline or Caroline.
- It sits in a very large cohort of -lyn and -aelyn names. The exact spelling is uncommon, but the sound will not be — a Maelyn may well share a classroom with a Kaylin or a Braelyn.
- There is no inherited meaning to hand her when she asks. If a documented origin story matters in your family, this name gives you the history of its parts rather than of itself.
- Its record is short. That means no baggage and no dated associations, but also nothing to point to when someone asks where it comes from.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Maelyn
Feminine · #1248 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maelyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,500 people named Maelyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maelyn?
- Maelyn is one of 3 recorded spellings. Maelynn is the more common one — 234 births in 2025 against 180 for Maelyn.
- How popular is the name Maelyn in 2025?
- Maelyn ranks #1248 among US girl names in 2025, with 180 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maelyn?
- About 1 in every 8,929 US girls born in 2025 was named Maelyn — 180 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maelyn with classmates?
- Maelyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maelyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Guadalupe#1248 · Sharon#1250 · Laylah#1250 · Kenia#1250 · Navi#1250 · Hayley#1250 · Solene#1250 · Juno#1250
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maelyn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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