Maverick
Masculine · English roots · “an unbranded calf”
Maverick is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 70,604 boys against 771 girls since 1880. See Maverick as a girl name
Maverick began as a family name in the American South, then became an English word — a stray calf with no brand on it — before anyone thought of giving it to a child. It carries three beats and a hard k at the end, the kind of name that lands clearly across a playground. A network television Western and, later, a fighter pilot's callsign in one of the biggest films of the 1980s both helped carry it from vocabulary back into the world of names.
How old is the name Maverick?
Maverick first appears in US birth records in 1957 — 68 years ago. The typical Maverick is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 70,000 people named Maverick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maverick most popular?
Maverick peaked in 2024, reaching #36 nationally. Today it ranks #49, 13 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Where it comes from
From Maverick (English surname) to Maverick
The story of Maverick
The path runs from surname to common noun and back to given name, which is unusual and well documented. Maverick was an English surname carried to America in the colonial period; in nineteenth-century Texas it attached to unbranded cattle, and from there to people who went their own way, a sense American political writing still uses. Television and film then returned it to circulation as a name: a card-playing drifter in a Western series, and a naval aviator's callsign. Its life as a first name for boys belongs almost entirely to recent generations, and it has taken hold in Canada as well as the United States.
Meaning
an unbranded calf; by extension, an independent-minded person
The word is traced to Samuel A. Maverick, a nineteenth-century Texas rancher whose cattle went unbranded; unclaimed strays came to be called mavericks, and the sense of a person who refuses to run with the herd followed. What is less settled is the older history of the surname itself before it reached Texas.
How the name formed
- MaverickEnglish surname
- maverickAmerican English word for an unbranded calf
- maverickan independent-minded person
- Maverickgiven name
Related forms: Maverick · Maverick
Pronouncing Maverick
MAV-uh-rik
Stress on the first syllable. Many speakers compress the middle vowel to two beats, MAV-rik, exactly as they do with the ordinary word.
Nicknames for Maverick
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
- 1957
- Most boys named
- 20227,049 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #36reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −11.2%5,894 in 2025, from 6,635
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.
Maverick in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maverick in Spanish — same name
- Maverick in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from Statistics Canada. Sources
Mavericks among us
people named Maverick are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 290 born in 2025 was named Maverick
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 Travis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maverick's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Travis climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Travis's path sketches the road Maverick is walking now.
Maverick 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 Maverick is headed
Maverick 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.
Maverick beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maverick in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way the English word is spelled, so most people get it right on first hearing without being told.
- One pronunciation, first-syllable stress, and no silent letters to explain.
- A ready-made short form in Mav, plus Rick and Ricky from the second half.
- Travels unchanged into Spanish and French spelling — no adaptation needed abroad.
- The word meaning is loud and instantly understood in English. People will hear "nonconformist" before they hear a name, and some will make a Top Gun remark.
- Its use as a given name is recent, so there are few adult Mavericks; the name will read as young for another few decades yet.
- There is no traditional formal variant to fall back on if the bearer ever wants something quieter on a résumé — the options are Maverick or a nickname.
- American political commentary uses the word constantly, which keeps it familiar but also keeps it tied to a particular register.
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Maverick
Masculine · English roots · #49 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mavericks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 70,000 people named Maverick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Maverick in 2025?
- Maverick ranks #49 among US boy names in 2025, with 5,894 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Maverick?
- About 1 in every 290 US boys born in 2025 was named Maverick — 5,894 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maverick with classmates?
- Maverick will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maverick
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Thiago#50 · Charles#48 · Grayson#51 · Isaac#47 · Anthony#46 · Wesley#52 · Logan#53 · Carter#45
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maverick? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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