Maven
Feminine · “one who understands”
Maven is given to both — 1,283 girls and 512 boys since 1880. See Maven as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Maven is Yiddish — meyvn, one who understands — and it entered English so completely that most speakers have no idea the word is borrowed at all.
How old is the name Maven?
Maven first appears in US birth records in 1998 — 27 years ago. The typical Maven is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,300 people named Maven are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maven most popular?
Maven peaked in 2023, reaching #1430 nationally. Today it ranks #1581, 151 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mevin to Maven
Our story of Maven
Our story of Maven is a story of a word crossing twice. Hebrew made mevin, one who discerns; Yiddish carried it into everyday speech; American English borrowed it in the 1960s and made it a compliment you could put in a headline. Then, in the 2010s, American families began putting it on birth certificates — a word about understanding, chosen for a child who has not yet demonstrated any. It appears in the registers in that decade for both sexes. Three languages, sixty years, and no older tradition of using it as a name.
Meaning
one who understands, expert
From the Yiddish meyvn, from the Hebrew mevin, 'one who understands', the participle of a verb meaning to discern. It entered American English in the 1960s through advertising and became ordinary. The etymology is documented and the borrowing recent enough to be traced precisely.
How the name formed
- mevin
- meyvn
- maven
- Maven
Related forms: מבֿין · Mevin · Mavin
Pronouncing Maven
MAY-vun
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is a homophone of the ordinary English noun.
Nicknames for Maven
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
- 1998
- Most girls named
- 2023156 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1430reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- −4.3%133 in 2025, from 139
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.
Maven in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- מבֿין in Yiddish — transliteration
- Mevin in Hebrew — related form
- Mavin in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, North Carolina.
Mavens among us
people named Maven are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 12,085 born in 2025 was named Maven
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 Lajuana test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maven's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lajuana climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lajuana's path sketches the road Maven is walking now.
Maven 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 Maven is headed
Maven looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 26% 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.
Maven beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maven in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Hebrew-to-Yiddish-to-English route is a genuinely well-documented word history.
- The understanding meaning is transparent and unusually flattering.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It is an ordinary English noun and reads as one.
- It is thoroughly unisex and does not signal sex on paper.
- It is very new and has almost no record behind it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Maven to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Maven
Feminine · #1581 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mavens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Maven are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Maven in 2025?
- Maven ranks #1581 among US girl names in 2025, with 133 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maven?
- About 1 in every 12,085 US girls born in 2025 was named Maven — 133 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maven with classmates?
- Maven will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maven
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aimee#1581 · Aylany#1581 · Shirley#1581 · Elyanna#1581 · Naia#1581 · Kinsleigh#1587 · Koa#1587 · Lidia#1587
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maven? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maven and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
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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