Maureen
Feminine · “bitter”
Maureen is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 144,276 girls against 328 boys since 1880.
Maureen is Irish Mary with the Irish diminutive attached. Máirín is Máire plus -ín, the ending Irish uses for smallness and affection, and Maureen is that word written so an English speaker can say it.
How old is the name Maureen?
Maureen first appears in US birth records in 1896 — 129 years ago. The typical Maureen alive today was born around 1956, making them about 69 years old. About 111,000 people named Maureen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maureen most popular?
Maureen peaked in 1948, reaching #88 nationally. Today it ranks #4352, 4,264 places below that high. See the whole 1948 chart.
Maureen appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Miryam to Maureen
The story of Maureen
Ireland treated Máire with such reverence that for centuries it was considered too sacred for ordinary use, and families used Máirín, Mairéad or Muire-derived alternatives instead. Máirín is the diminutive, formed exactly as Cáitín is formed from Cáit. English-speaking countries respelled it phonetically in the nineteenth century, and Maureen spread through Ireland, Britain, America and Australia together, peaking in the United States in the late 1940s.
Meaningscholars disagree
bitter; beloved; sea
Through Máire, the Irish form of Mary, from the Hebrew Miryam — whose meaning is among the most disputed in the field. 'Bitter', 'beloved', 'rebellious' and an Egyptian element meaning beloved have all been proposed and none has won. The Irish diminutive -ín adds affection rather than meaning.
How the name formed
- Miryam
- Maria
- Máire
- Máirín
- Maureen
Related forms: Máirín · Máire · Mairi · Marion
Pronouncing Maureen
maw-REEN
Two syllables, stress on the second. Irish speakers say the original Máirín as MAW-reen, with the stress at the front, which is the older pattern.
Nicknames for Maureen
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
- 1896
- Most girls named
- 19614,569 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #88reached in 1948
- Change vs 2022
- −23.8%32 in 2025, from 42
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.
Maureen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Máirín in Irish — same name
- Máire in Irish — related form
- Mairi in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Marion in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Illinois.
Maureens among us
people named Maureen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 50,227 born in 2025 was named Maureen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Velma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maureen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Velma climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Velma's path sketches the road Maureen is walking now.
Maureen 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 Maureen is headed
Maureen should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Maureen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maureen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A genuine Irish name with a documented diminutive structure, not an English invention.
- Mary stands behind it, the single most-used woman's name in European history.
- The English spelling is entirely phonetic, which the Irish one is not.
- The stress falls differently in Irish and English use, and both are correct.
- Mary's own meaning is genuinely unsettled, so the name cannot promise one.
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What they receive
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Maureen
Feminine · #4352 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maureens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 111,000 people named Maureen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Maureen in 2025?
- Maureen ranks #4352 among US girl names in 2025, with 32 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maureen?
- About 1 in every 50,227 US girls born in 2025 was named Maureen — 32 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maureen with classmates?
- Maureen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maureen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sigrid#4352 · Adel#4352 · Lovella#4352 · Kaysha#4352 · Arissa#4352 · Joseline#4352 · Yajaira#4352 · Elma#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maureen? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maureen and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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