Mailee
Feminine
Mailee is two Hmong words that the American paperwork joined. Mai is one of the most common female first elements in Hmong naming and Lee is a frequent second element or clan name; written as two words in the family and as one on the form, the pair becomes a name that looks constructed and is in fact entirely traditional.
How old is the name Mailee?
Mailee first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Mailee alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 600 people named Mailee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mailee most popular?
Mailee peaked in 2008, reaching #4089 nationally. Today it ranks #7133, 3,044 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mai Lee to Mailee
The story of Mailee
Hmong families arrived in the United States in large numbers after 1975, principally in Minnesota, Wisconsin and California, and American record-keeping immediately met a naming system it was not built for: a given name of two elements, a clan name that functions differently from a surname, and no fixed romanisation. Names were written as one word or two depending on the clerk. Mailee, Maiyer, Maikou and PaChia all appear in the data as single strings for the same reason. The 2008 peak belongs to the second American-born generation.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hmong: a common female name element, with a second element
Hmong Mai is a widespread female name element; Lee, more properly Lis, is one of the eighteen Hmong clan names. In Vietnamese, Mai is the apricot blossom and Ly is a separate surname, and some Mailees come through that line instead. Because two Southeast Asian traditions and an American spelling convention all meet here, no single reading applies to every bearer.
How the name formed
- Mai Lee
- Mailee
Related forms: Mai Lis · Mai Ly
Pronouncing Mailee
MY-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the ai as a long I. Hmong is tonal, so the first element carries a tone that English cannot reproduce; the American pronunciation is an approximation everyone accepts.
Nicknames for Mailee
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
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 200838 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4089reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- +15.4%15 in 2025, from 13
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.
Mailee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mai Lis in Hmong — same name
- Mai Ly in Vietnamese — related form
Mailees among us
people named Mailee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 107,151 born in 2025 was named Mailee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mailee
- #7133
- Mailee on the 2025 chart
- #676
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mailee went to 15 girls in 2025, but Maylee and Maile are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 293, which makes it the 676th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,457 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 5,486 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 107,151 for Mailee 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 Delmy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mailee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Delmy climbed just as high around 1992, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Delmy's path sketches the road Mailee is walking now.
Mailee 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
Mailee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mailee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a genuine traditional name rather than a modern construction, despite looking like one.
- Both halves work independently as everyday names.
- The sound is easy for English speakers with no adjustment.
- English readers will assume it is a respelling of Maylee or Miley.
- The single-word spelling loses the two-element structure the name actually has.
- Mailee, Maylee, Mailie and Mai Lee all appear in the records.
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What they receive
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Mailee
Feminine · #7133 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mailees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Mailee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mailee?
- Mailee is one of 3 recorded spellings. Maylee is the more common one — 245 births in 2025 against 15 for Mailee.
- How popular is the name Mailee in 2025?
- Mailee ranks #7133 among US girl names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mailee?
- About 1 in every 107,151 US girls born in 2025 was named Mailee — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mailee with classmates?
- Mailee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mailee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Pennie#7133 · Zina#7133 · Elzie#7133 · Rosabel#7133 · Adelene#7133 · Cruz#7133 · Kansas#7133 · Ione#7133
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mailee? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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