Maizie
Feminine · “pearl”
Maizie is the z-spelled cousin of Maisie, the Scots pet form of Mairead — Scotland's Margaret — and so it belongs, quietly, to one of the oldest and best-traveled names in Europe. Henry James put the Maisie spelling in front of English readers in 1897 with What Maisie Knew, and the sound has been part of the nursery ever since. Two syllables, both open, ending in that same soft -ie that Josie and Rosie share.
How old is the name Maizie?
Maizie first appears in US birth records in 1891 — 134 years ago. The typical Maizie is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,600 people named Maizie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maizie most popular?
Maizie peaked in 2025, reaching #898 nationally. Today it ranks #898, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Maizie appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Margarites to Maizie
The story of Maizie
Margaret arrived in medieval Scotland and became Mairead in Gaelic, which everyday speech clipped and softened into Maisie. That short form outgrew its parent and became a name in its own right, particularly in Scotland and northern England, and it crossed the Atlantic with Scottish and Irish families in the nineteenth century. Maizie is the American respelling, swapping s for z to lock down the buzzing middle consonant — the same instinct that produced Suzy beside Susie. It has appeared in US records since the late nineteenth century, thinly but without a real break, and has been climbing again in recent years.
Meaning
pearl
Maizie comes down from Margaret, which goes back to Greek margarites, 'pearl'. The meaning belongs to the parent name; the Scots short form carries it along.
How the name formed
- Margarites
- Margaret
- Mairead
- Maisie
- Maizie
Related forms: Maisie · Mairead · Margaret · Marguerite · Margarita · Mared
Pronouncing Maizie
MAY-zee
Stress on the first syllable. The spelling makes the z sound unmistakable, so English speakers rarely hesitate over it.
Nicknames for Maizie
High
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
- 1891
- Most girls named
- 2025295 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #898reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +19.4%295 in 2025, from 247
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.
Maizie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maisie in Scots / English — spelling variant
- Mairead in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Margaret in English — related form
- Marguerite in French — related form
- Margarita in Spanish — related form
- Mared in Welsh — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Maizies among us
people named Maizie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,448 born in 2025 was named Maizie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maizie
- #898
- Maizie on the 2025 chart
- #186
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maizie went to 295 girls in 2025, but Maisie, Mayzie and Maycie and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 1,779, which makes it the 186th most-given girls’ name of the year — 712 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 903 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,448 for Maizie 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 Jalynn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maizie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jalynn climbed just as high around 2003, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jalynn's path sketches the road Maizie is walking now.
Maizie 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 Maizie is headed
Maizie looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 32% 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.
Maizie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maizie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads exactly as it sounds to English speakers — the z removes any doubt about the middle consonant.
- Sits in a large, well-documented family: Margaret, Marguerite, Margarita, Mairead all connect back to it.
- Already short, so it needs no nickname to function day to day, and still has Maize and Mai available.
- A documented meaning — 'pearl' — with no serious competing reading.
- Familiar in sound while uncommon in this spelling, so it rarely needs repeating twice in a room.
- Maisie is the older and better-known spelling, so expect a lifetime of gentle corrections — spoken aloud the two are identical, and written down people will default to the s.
- Written down, the first four letters spell maize, and some readers will see the corn word before they see the name.
- It began as a pet form, and a few people still hear it that way. If you want a longer formal option on paper, Margaret or Mairead sits behind it naturally.
- Being the only one in a school is likely, which suits some children exactly and makes others wish for company.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Maizie
Feminine · #898 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maizies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,600 people named Maizie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maizie?
- Maizie is one of 5 recorded spellings. Maisie is the more common one — 1,328 births in 2025 against 295 for Maizie.
- How popular is the name Maizie in 2025?
- Maizie ranks #898 among US girl names in 2025, with 295 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maizie?
- About 1 in every 5,448 US girls born in 2025 was named Maizie — 295 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maizie with classmates?
- Maizie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maizie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ainara#898 · Liora#898 · Guinevere#898 · Chandler#895 · Liv#895 · Naylani#895 · Linda#902 · Luisa#902
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maizie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maizie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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