Maha
Feminine · “wild oryx”
Maha is a word from Arabic poetry. It names the wild oryx — the desert antelope with the long straight horns — and it is used above all for the animal's eyes, which classical poets took as the standard against which a woman's eyes were measured.
How old is the name Maha?
Maha first appears in US birth records in 1964 — 61 years ago. The typical Maha alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 2,000 people named Maha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maha most popular?
Maha peaked in 2002, reaching #2126 nationally. Today it ranks #2751, 625 places below that high. See the whole 2002 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Maha
Classical Arabic poetry built its praise out of the desert itself, and the oryx supplied one of its most durable images — an animal both beautiful and hard to approach. Maha became a woman's name out of that tradition rather than out of any scripture, which makes it slightly unusual among Arabic names: it is literary rather than religious in origin. It is used across the Levant, Egypt, Sudan and the Gulf, and it reaches United States records with families from all of them. The Arabian oryx itself was hunted almost to nothing in the twentieth century and has since been brought back.
Meaning
wild oryx; by extension, beautiful eyes
Arabic maha is the plural of mahat and names the oryx of the Arabian desert. The poetic use is old and specific: a woman with 'the eyes of the maha' is a fixed image in classical Arabic verse, referring to the animal's large dark eye. The reading is documented and not disputed. A separate Sanskrit maha, 'great', exists and is unrelated.
Pronouncing Maha
MAH-hah
Two syllables, stress on the first, both vowels open and the h fully pronounced between them. English speakers sometimes let the middle h vanish, which flattens it to MAH.
Nicknames for Maha
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
- 1964
- Most girls named
- 200279 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2126reached in 2002
- Change vs 2024
- +24.0%62 in 2025, from 50
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.
Maha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maha in Arabic — transliteration
- Maha in Sanskrit — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Michigan.
Mahas among us
people named Maha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 25,924 born in 2025 was named Maha
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 Charlynn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Charlynn climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Charlynn's path sketches the road Maha is walking now.
Maha 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 Maha is headed
Maha should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Maha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maha in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, entirely phonetic, and said correctly by almost everyone at first sight.
- A meaning that is a real image from a real poetic tradition rather than an abstract virtue.
- Recognized without explanation across the Arabic-speaking world.
- The middle h is easily dropped by English speakers, leaving a single syllable.
- Maha, Mahaa and Meha circulate together and can be confused.
- The poetic meaning is well known to Arabic speakers and completely opaque to everyone else.
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What they receive
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Maha
Feminine · #2751 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mahas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,000 people named Maha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Maha in 2025?
- Maha ranks #2751 among US girl names in 2025, with 62 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maha?
- About 1 in every 25,924 US girls born in 2025 was named Maha — 62 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maha with classmates?
- Maha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emmersyn#2751 · Allisson#2751 · Runa#2751 · Cloe#2751 · Emeline#2751 · Annalynn#2751 · Anisa#2751 · Nya#2751
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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