Mauro
Masculine · “Moorish”
Mauro is the Italian form of the Latin Maurus, a name in continuous use since the days of the Roman Empire, and it still sounds the way it did then: two open syllables, MOW-roh, the second one rolling away. It has crossed into Spanish and Portuguese without changing a letter, and travels through the American Southwest and Florida in that form.
How old is the name Mauro?
Mauro first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Mauro alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 5,600 people named Mauro are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mauro most popular?
Mauro peaked in 1974, reaching #993 nationally. Today it ranks #1486, 493 places below that high. See the whole 1974 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mauri to Mauro
The story of Mauro
The Romans called the peoples of northwest Africa the Mauri, and Maurus began as a plain word for a man from that region before hardening into a personal name. It was carried into the Christian centuries by Saint Maurus, the sixth-century disciple of Benedict of Nursia whose story Pope Gregory the Great set down in his Dialogues; churches and towns named San Mauro still mark the route his cult traveled through Italy and France. From Maurus the Romance languages made Mauro, keeping the spelling identical in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, while a Latin derivative, Mauritius, branched off into Maurice, Maurizio and Mauricio. Italian, Mexican and Portuguese-speaking families brought Mauro to the United States, which is why it sits most thickly in Texas, California and Florida.
Meaning
Moorish; a man from Mauretania, North Africa
Latin Maurus was originally a description of origin — one of the Mauri, the people of Roman Mauretania in northwest Africa — and came in time to suggest dark coloring. It is the same root behind Maurice and Mauricio.
How the name formed
- Mauri
- Maurus
- Mauro
Related forms: Maurus · Mauro · Mauro · Maur · Mavro · Maurizio
Pronouncing Mauro
MOW-roh
First syllable rhymes with 'how', not with 'more'. In Italian, Spanish and Portuguese the r is tapped; English speakers generally soften it without anyone minding.
Nicknames for Mauro
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 2007131 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #993reached in 1974
- Change vs 2023
- −7.0%119 in 2025, from 128
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.
Mauro in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maurus in Latin — same name
- Mauro in Spanish — same name
- Mauro in Portuguese — same name
- Maur in French — same name
- Mavro in Croatian — related form
- Maurizio in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Mauros among us
people named Mauro are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 14,354 born in 2025 was named Mauro
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 Norma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mauro's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Norma climbed just as high around 1932, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Norma's path sketches the road Mauro is walking now.
Mauro 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 Mauro is headed
Mauro 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.
Mauro beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mauro in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled identically in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, so it needs no adaptation as it crosses between those languages and English.
- Five letters, two syllables, and no silent letters or doubled consonants to explain.
- An unbroken written record from Roman Latin through Saint Maurus to the present day.
- Sits alongside the widely known Maurice and Mauricio, which gives it a familiar footing even where the form itself is new to people.
- English speakers who read it before hearing it often say MOR-oh, and some will reach instead for Marco or Mario. A one-time correction usually settles it, but expect to make it often.
- The meaning is a description of North African origin rather than a quality — worth knowing plainly, since sites that promise something loftier are inventing it.
- The name resists shortening: Mau and Ro exist but are thin, so in practice a Mauro is called Mauro. That suits some families and frustrates others.
- Rare enough in American schools that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate — pleasant most days, mildly tiring on the days it has to be spelled out.
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What they receive
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Mauro
Masculine · #1486 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mauros are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,600 people named Mauro are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mauro in 2025?
- Mauro ranks #1486 among US boy names in 2025, with 119 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mauro?
- About 1 in every 14,354 US boys born in 2025 was named Mauro — 119 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mauro with classmates?
- Mauro will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mauro
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Cecil#1486 · Ziggy#1486 · Finnian#1486 · Jonathon#1486 · Kaladin#1486 · Arjan#1492 · Kyair#1492 · Nickolas#1492
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mauro? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mauro and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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