Maher
Masculine · “skilled”
Maher arrives in American records from two directions that have nothing to do with each other — an Arabic word for someone genuinely skilled at what they do, and an Irish surname from a family in Tipperary. They meet at five letters and part again immediately.
How old is the name Maher?
Maher first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Maher alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 1,100 people named Maher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maher most popular?
Maher peaked in 1983, reaching #2408 nationally. Today it ranks #2718, 310 places below that high. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mahir to Maher
The story of Maher
The Arabic name comes out of the ordinary vocabulary of the language, where a great many given names are simply admirable adjectives — Karim, generous; Amin, trustworthy; Mahir, skilled. It travels wherever Arabic does, across North Africa, the Levant and the Gulf, and into the United States with families from all of them. The Irish name is a surname first: Ó Meachair belonged to a Tipperary sept, and its anglicizations — Maher, Meagher, Maugher — arrived with nineteenth-century emigration. American parents moving surnames to the front of the name did the rest.
Meaningscholars disagree
skilled, expert — or, on the Irish side, hospitable
Arabic mahir is an active participle: one who is skilled, proficient, an expert. It is a live adjective as well as a name. The Irish Maher is an anglicization of Ó Meachair, from meachar, usually read as 'hospitable' or 'kindly'; the family were lords of Uí Chairin in what is now County Tipperary. Neither reading is doubted on its own side, and neither has anything to do with the other.
How the name formed
- Mahir
- Maher
Related forms: Mahir · Mahir · Meagher · Ó Meachair
Pronouncing Maher
MAH-hir
The Arabic name is MAA-hir, stress on the first syllable, with a light breath on the h. The Irish surname used as a first name is usually MAH-er or even MAR, the h silent — the same collapse that turns Meagher into MAR.
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
- 1963
- Most boys named
- 202547 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2408reached in 1983
- Change vs 2024
- +67.9%47 in 2025, from 28
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.
Maher in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mahir in Arabic — transliteration
- Mahir in Turkish — spelling variant
- Meagher in Irish — related form
- Ó Meachair in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota, California, Illinois.
Mahers among us
people named Maher are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 36,342 born in 2025 was named Maher
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maher
- #2718
- Maher on the 2025 chart
- #875
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maher went to 47 boys in 2025, but Maheer is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 53, which makes it the 875th most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,843 places above the chart.
- Maher47
- Maheer6
About 1 boy in 32,228 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 36,342 for Maher 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 Alanson test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maher's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alanson climbed just as high around 1927, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alanson's path sketches the road Maher is walking now.
Maher 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 Maher is headed
Maher 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.
Maher beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maher in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five letters, one straightforward spelling, and no silent letters in the Arabic reading.
- A living adjective in Arabic, so its meaning is transparent to a very large part of the world.
- Works in English mouths without adjustment, which not every Arabic name does.
- The h is pronounced in Arabic and often not in the Irish surname, so the name is said two ways depending on who is reading it.
- It sits close to Mahler and to the English 'mare' sound, which invites the occasional stumble.
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What they receive
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Maher
Masculine · #2718 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mahers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Maher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maher?
- Maher is the most-used spelling in US records — 47 of the 53 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Maheer.
- How popular is the name Maher in 2025?
- Maher ranks #2718 among US boy names in 2025, with 47 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maher?
- About 1 in every 36,342 US boys born in 2025 was named Maher — 47 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maher with classmates?
- Maher will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maher
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Einar#2718 · Kurtis#2718 · Sasha#2718 · Jovany#2718 · Ahsan#2718 · Xavien#2718 · Yassin#2718 · Unknown#2718
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maher? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maher and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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