Maeve
Feminine · “intoxicating”
Maeve is the English spelling of Medb, the queen of Connacht who drives the plot of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, the great Irish cattle-raid epic written down by medieval monks. One syllable, four letters, and it lands cleanly in the mouth — a long A and a soft V, no second guess about where the stress falls. It traveled from Irish manuscripts to Irish speech to English print, and the Irish novelist Maeve Binchy carried it onto bookshelves worldwide.
How old is the name Maeve?
Maeve first appears in US birth records in 1940 — 85 years ago. The typical Maeve is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 29,500 people named Maeve are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maeve most popular?
Maeve peaked in 2023, reaching #73 nationally. Today it ranks #76, 3 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Where it comes from
From Medb to Maeve
The story of Maeve
The name begins in Ireland as Medb, spelled Meadhbh in later Irish and Méabh in the modern simplified orthography. Its most famous bearer is the Medb of the Ulster Cycle, the Connacht queen whose demand for a prize bull sets the Táin Bó Cúailnge in motion — a story preserved in Irish manuscripts from the twelfth century onward. Because Meadhbh looks nothing like it sounds to an English reader, an anglicized spelling grew up alongside it, and Maeve is the one that stuck in English-speaking countries. It still charts today in Scotland, England and Wales, and Canada as well as the United States.
Meaning
intoxicating, she who intoxicates
The Old Irish medb comes from the same root as the word for mead, the honey wine; the name is usually rendered "she who intoxicates" or "the intoxicating one."
Cultural footprint
Maeve Binchy (b. 1939) — Beloved Irish storyteller (Circle of Friends)
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Medb
- Meadhbh
- Méabh
- Maeve
Related forms: Méabh · Meadhbh · Medb · Mave · Méibhín · Mab
Pronouncing Maeve
MAYV
One syllable, rhyming with cave and wave. The Irish spellings Méabh and Meadhbh are said the same way, which is why the anglicized form works so smoothly for English speakers.
Nicknames for Maeve
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
- 1940
- Most girls named
- 20253,153 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #73reached in 2023
- Change vs 2023
- +3.0%3,153 in 2025, from 3,062
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.
Maeve in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Méabh in Irish — same name
- Meadhbh in Irish (older spelling) — spelling variant
- Medb in Old Irish — same name
- Mave in English — spelling variant
- Méibhín in Irish — related form
- Mab in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Massachusetts. International figures from National Records of Scotland, Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada. Sources
Maeves among us
people named Maeve are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 510 born in 2025 was named Maeve
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 Erika test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maeve's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Erika climbed just as high around 1989, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Erika's path sketches the road Maeve is walking now.
Maeve 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.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Maeve is headed
Maeve looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 39% 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.
Maeve beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maeve in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short and phonetic: an English reader gets it right on sight, without needing the Irish spelling explained.
- One syllable, so it needs no nickname to be usable — though Mae is there if a family wants one.
- A documented record stretching back to medieval Irish manuscripts, which is a longer paper trail than most names on the charts.
- Charts in Ireland's neighbors and in Canada as well as the US, so it crosses borders without translation.
- It is climbing quickly. A child born now is unlikely to share a classroom with another Maeve, but the name will be more familiar by the time she is grown.
- Expect occasional misspellings — Mave, Maive, Meave — and the Irish forms Méabh and Meadhbh may come up if your family has ties to Ireland.
- The queen Medb of the Táin is a fierce, war-starting figure. Some parents love that; it is worth knowing the story before someone else tells you about it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Maeve
Feminine · #76 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maeves are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 29,500 people named Maeve are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Maeve in 2025?
- Maeve ranks #76 among US girl names in 2025, with 3,153 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Maeve?
- About 1 in every 510 US girls born in 2025 was named Maeve — 3,153 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maeve with classmates?
- Maeve will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maeve
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ayla#77 · Daisy#75 · Liliana#78 · Emery#74 · Melody#79 · Millie#73 · Lyla#80 · Madeline#81
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maeve? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maeve and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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