Maison
Masculine · Old French roots · “Either "stoneworker" or”
Maison is given to both — 4,575 boys and 815 girls since 1880. See Maison as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Maison sits at a crossing point between two real things: the English surname Mason, worn by stonecutters and their descendants for centuries, and the French word maison, house — the word on every rental sign and bakery awning in France. Said aloud in American English it lands as two easy syllables everyone already knows how to hear, while on the page it keeps a little of that French shape.
How old is the name Maison?
Maison first appears in US birth records in 1988 — 37 years ago. The typical Maison is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,500 people named Maison are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maison most popular?
Maison peaked in 2016, reaching #782 nationally. Today it ranks #1290, 508 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From maçon (Old French) to Maison
The story of Maison
The older road is the surname one: maçon, a stonemason, gave England the surname Mason in the medieval period, and American parents turned that surname into a first name in the modern era. The spelling Maison is a much later arrival, appearing in US birth records only in recent decades, riding the same wave that lifted Mason and reshaping it with the French word already familiar from signs and cookbooks. Its footprint on the charts has been a single recent wave — a rise, a crest, and a gentle step back — with no long history before it. Records show it clustered in New York, California and Texas.
Meaningscholars disagree
Either "stoneworker" or, read as French, "house"
Two honest readings compete. As a spelling of Mason, it goes back to the Old French maçon, a worker in stone, which became an English occupational surname. Read literally as French, maison is the ordinary word for house or home, from the Latin mansiō, a dwelling. Both are documented words; which one a given family had in mind is a family matter.
How the name formed
- maçonOld French
- MasonEnglish surname
- Maison
Related forms: Mason · Mayson · Masson
Pronouncing Maison
MAY-sun
In American use it is said exactly like Mason. Anyone reading it as French will say may-ZOHN, with the stress on the second syllable — worth knowing if the family has French-speaking relatives or travels.
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
- 1988
- Most boys named
- 2016304 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #782reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- −3.2%151 in 2025, from 156
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.
Maison in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mason in English — spelling variant
- Mayson in English — spelling variant
- Masson in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Texas.
Maisons among us
people named Maison are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 11,312 born in 2025 was named Maison
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maison
- #1290
- Maison on the 2025 chart
- #686
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maison went to 151 boys in 2025, but Mayson is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 249, which makes it the 686th most-given boys’ name of the year — 604 places above the chart.
- Maison151
- Mayson98
About 1 boy in 6,860 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 11,312 for Maison 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 Kennth test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maison's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kennth climbed just as high around 1960, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kennth's path sketches the road Maison is walking now.
Maison 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 Maison is headed
Maison is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High 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.
Maison beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maison in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sounds identical to a name almost every American already knows, so it is rarely mispronounced on a first attempt.
- Two short syllables that sit easily beside most surnames and need no shortening.
- Recognizable in French as an everyday word, which gives it a foothold beyond English.
- Has been appearing steadily in US records for more than a generation, so it is unfamiliar as a spelling but not untested.
- The default spelling is Mason, and this one will be corrected on forms, name tags and email addresses for life. A calm "Maison, with an i" becomes a lifelong habit.
- He will likely be the only Maison in his school, but far from the only May-sun in earshot — the sound is widely shared even though the spelling is not.
- In French, maison is simply the word for house. Some French speakers will find that charming and some will find it odd; both reactions come up.
- The name has no long historical record behind it, so there are no old namesakes or traditions to lean on — its story so far is a recent American one.
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What they receive
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Maison
Masculine · Old French roots · #1290 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maisons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,500 people named Maison are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maison?
- Maison is the most-used spelling in US records — 151 of the 249 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Mayson.
- How popular is the name Maison in 2025?
- Maison ranks #1290 among US boy names in 2025, with 151 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maison?
- About 1 in every 11,312 US boys born in 2025 was named Maison — 151 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maison with classmates?
- Maison will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maison
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Yunus#1290 · Amarion#1290 · Anas#1290 · Achilles#1290 · Asiah#1290 · Titan#1290 · Rudra#1287 · Conway#1287
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maison? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maison and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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