Maisy
Feminine · “pearl”
Maisy is the Scottish short form of Margaret worn as a name in its own right, and it has been doing that since long before it reached American records — Henry James called his 1897 novel "What Maisie Knew" and expected readers to recognize the name. Two beats, one long vowel, a soft z in the middle: it rhymes with Daisy and needs no explaining once it has been said aloud.
How old is the name Maisy?
Maisy first appears in US birth records in 1991 — 34 years ago. The typical Maisy is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,200 people named Maisy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maisy most popular?
Maisy peaked in 2025, reaching #745 nationally. Today it ranks #745, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Margarites to Maisy
The story of Maisy
Margaret arrived in Scotland with the medieval church and became Mairead in Gaelic, and Mairead in everyday Scots speech wore down to Maisie and Mysie. Those short forms broke free and were used as full names, which is how Henry James could title a novel with one in 1897. The -y spelling is the newer of the pair, and it got a considerable boost in the English-speaking world from Lucy Cousins's picture books about a mouse called Maisy, in print since the 1990s and read to a whole generation of small children. American records show the spelling arriving alongside that wave.
Meaning
pearl
Maisy carries the meaning of Margaret, from Greek margarites, "pearl". The route runs through Mairead, the Gaelic form of Margaret, which gave Scotland the pet forms Maisie and Mysie.
How the name formed
- Margarites
- Margaret
- Mairead
- Maisie
- Maisy
Related forms: Maisie · Mairead · Margaret · Marguerite · Margarita · Greta
Pronouncing Maisy
MAY-zee
Stress on the first syllable; the s sounds like a z, as in Daisy. There is only one accepted way to say it, which spares a lifetime of corrections on that front.
Nicknames for Maisy
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
- 1991
- Most girls named
- 2025365 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #745reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +4.0%365 in 2025, from 351
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.
Maisy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maisie in English — spelling variant
- Mairead in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Margaret in English — related form
- Marguerite in French — related form
- Margarita in Spanish — related form
- Greta in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Pennsylvania.
Maisys among us
people named Maisy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,403 born in 2025 was named Maisy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maisy
- #745
- Maisy on the 2025 chart
- #502
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maisy went to 365 girls in 2025, but Maizy, Mayci and Mayzi are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 528, which makes it the 502nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 243 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,044 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,403 for Maisy 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 Estela test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maisy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Estela climbed just as high around 1932, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Estela's path sketches the road Maisy is walking now.
Maisy 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 Maisy is headed
Maisy looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 25% 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.
Maisy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maisy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Instantly sayable in English: two syllables, a familiar rhyme in Daisy, and no pronunciation ambiguity to correct.
- Sits at the end of a long documented line — Margaret to Mairead to Maisie — so it has formal ancestry without sounding formal.
- Related forms exist across most of Europe: Marguerite, Margarita, Greta, Mairead.
- Familiar in sound while uncommon as a spelling, so it registers as recognizable rather than invented.
- Maisie is the older and more widely known spelling, so expect to say "with a y" fairly often, and to see it written the other way by people acting in good faith.
- It shares its shape with Macy, Maci and Daisy, all in use at once. Some mishearing comes with the territory.
- Maisy is a pet form by origin, with no longer version behind it unless you register Margaret and use Maisy at home. Some parents like that flexibility; others prefer the short name to be the real one.
- For children starting school now, the picture-book mouse of the same name may come up. It fades as the books do, and it is an affectionate association rather than an awkward one.
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What they receive
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Maisy
Feminine · #745 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maisys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,200 people named Maisy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maisy?
- Maisy is the most-used spelling in US records — 365 of the 528 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Maizy, Mayci and Mayzi.
- How popular is the name Maisy in 2025?
- Maisy ranks #745 among US girl names in 2025, with 365 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maisy?
- About 1 in every 4,403 US girls born in 2025 was named Maisy — 365 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maisy with classmates?
- Maisy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maisy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Araceli#746 · Mikayla#746 · Dani#746 · Kiana#743 · Valery#743 · Kensley#741 · Karina#749 · Davina#749
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maisy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maisy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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