Maelynn
Feminine · “Mae joined to the -lynn ending”
Maelynn is a made-in-America compound: Mae at the front, and the -lynn ending that parents here have been fastening onto names since the era of Carolyn, Marilyn and Jocelyn. It says itself on the first try — two beats, the second one light — and it carries two ready-made short forms that have each had long lives as names in their own right.
How old is the name Maelynn?
Maelynn first appears in US birth records in 1966 — 59 years ago. The typical Maelynn is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,900 people named Maelynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maelynn most popular?
Maelynn peaked in 2024, reaching #990 nationally. Today it ranks #1053, 63 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Where it comes from
From May to Maelynn
The story of Maelynn
Both halves are old; the join is new. Lynn arrived in American given names through Welsh place and family names, and by the middle of the twentieth century it had become a favorite ending rather than a meaning — Carolyn, Marilyn, Evelyn, Jacquelyn all owe it their last note. Mae, a variant spelling of May, had its own separate run as a first name and a middle name across the English-speaking world. Maelynn is what happens when a parent puts the two together, which is a long-standing American habit and the reason so many -lynn names appear in the record only once someone thought to write them down.
Meaningscholars disagree
Mae joined to the -lynn ending; Lynn traces to a Welsh word for lake, while Mae has two competing sources
The construction is clear enough — Mae plus Lynn — but Mae itself is read two ways: as a pet form of Mary and Margaret, and as the month of May. Lynn comes into English names from the Welsh llyn, 'lake', by way of place names and surnames, though by the twentieth century it was being used purely as a sound, a suffix attached to almost anything. Because the blend is modern, no single agreed translation sits behind the whole name.
How the name formed
- May
- Mae
- Maelynn
Related forms: Maelyn · Maelynne · Mae Lynn
Pronouncing Maelynn
MAY-lin
Stress on the first syllable. The second is unstressed and reduced, so it lands closer to -lin than -lynn; some families say MAY-LIN with both halves weighted, treating it as two names side by side.
Nicknames for Maelynn
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
- 1966
- Most girls named
- 2024261 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #990reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −10.3%234 in 2025, from 261
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.
Maelynn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maelyn in English — spelling variant
- Maelynne in English — spelling variant
- Mae Lynn in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Ohio, Indiana.
Maelynns among us
people named Maelynn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,869 born in 2025 was named Maelynn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maelynn
- #1053
- Maelynn on the 2025 chart
- #571
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maelynn went to 234 girls in 2025, but Maelyn 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 — 482 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 6,869 for Maelynn 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 Baylie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maelynn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Baylie climbed just as high around 1997, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Baylie's path sketches the road Maelynn is walking now.
Maelynn 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 Maelynn is headed
Maelynn looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 16% 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.
Maelynn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maelynn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads phonetically for English speakers — nobody has to be told how to say it.
- Two built-in short forms, Mae and Lynn, each of which has stood alone as a given name for generations.
- Shares its rhythm and ending with a whole familiar family of names, so it sounds settled rather than startling.
- Rare enough in classrooms that a first name alone will usually identify her.
- The spelling will need repeating. Maelyn, Maelynne, Maelin and Mae Lynn all exist, and one n versus two is the sort of thing that gets guessed wrong on paperwork for life.
- It is heard close to Madelyn, Maylin and Maeve in noisy rooms, which can mean a beat of clarification at introductions.
- This name's wave is very recent, so almost everyone carrying it is a child. That means no adult namesakes to point to — but also no fixed impression for anyone to arrive with.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Maelynn
Feminine · #1053 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maelynns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Maelynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maelynn?
- Maelynn is the most-used spelling in US records — 234 of the 423 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Maelyn and Maelin.
- How popular is the name Maelynn in 2025?
- Maelynn ranks #1053 among US girl names in 2025, with 234 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maelynn?
- About 1 in every 6,869 US girls born in 2025 was named Maelynn — 234 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maelynn with classmates?
- Maelynn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maelynn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jubilee#1053 · Kai#1053 · Melani#1053 · Araya#1052 · Jazlynn#1057 · Sapphire#1057 · Harlee#1047 · Inara#1047
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maelynn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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