Mame
Feminine · “Depends on the name it shortens”
Mame is a nineteenth-century American pet form — of Mary, of Margaret, of Mamie — written down as a full name. Its peak is 1881, at the height of the era when a diminutive was a perfectly respectable thing to register.
How old is the name Mame?
Mame was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Mame alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 400 people named Mame are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mame most popular?
Mame peaked in 1881, reaching #447 nationally. Today it ranks #5410, 4,963 places below that high. See the whole 1881 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mary to Mame
Our story of Mame
Nursery forms follow a rule that has nothing to do with etymology: a child learning to speak simplifies a name toward a consonant it can already make, usually m, b, d or n, and the family adopts what the child produces. That is how Margaret gives Peggy, Mary gives Molly and Polly, and both give Mame and Mamie. The forms are centuries old and completely unrelated to the sounds of the original names — Peggy has no g in Margaret, Polly no p in Mary. What the American nineteenth century did was register them, so the birth records fill with names that had previously lived only in a household. Mame's 1881 peak sits at the height of that habit; Auntie Mame, the 1955 novel and the films and musical after it, gave the word a much later and quite separate visibility.
Meaningscholars disagree
Depends on the name it shortens
Mame and Mamie serve as familiar forms of Mary, whose own meaning is genuinely unsettled — bitter, beloved and rebellious have all been proposed — and of Margaret, from Greek margarites, a pearl, which is settled. Which a given Mame shortened is not recoverable. The form itself is an English nursery reduplication and carries no meaning.
How the name formed
- Mary
- Mamie
- Mame
Pronouncing Mame
MAYM
One syllable, rhyming with name. It is regularly misread as MAH-may or MAM by people meeting it in writing.
Nicknames for Mame
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 200229 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #447reached in 1881
- Change vs 2024
- +35.3%23 in 2025, from 17
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.
Mame in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Mames among us
people named Mame are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 69,881 born in 2025 was named Mame
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Mame 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
Mame beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mame in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and four letters, about as compact as a name gets.
- Mary and Margaret both stand behind it as formal options.
- It has a genuine American history rather than an invented one.
- It is regularly misread on first sight.
- It reads as a nickname, and people will ask what it is short for.
- It is strongly dated to the years before 1920.
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What they receive
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Mame
Feminine · #5410 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mames are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Mame are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mame in 2025?
- Mame ranks #5410 among US girl names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mame?
- About 1 in every 69,881 US girls born in 2025 was named Mame — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mame with classmates?
- Mame will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mame
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aina#5410 · Sherry#5410 · Kathia#5410 · Taj#5410 · Analicia#5410 · Divya#5410 · Halimah#5410 · Leo#5410
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mame? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mame and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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