Mavis
Feminine · Old French roots · “song thrush”
Mavis is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 23,015 girls against 135 boys since 1880.
Mavis is an English word before it is a name: the old poetic term for the song thrush, the bird whose repeated phrases carry across a garden at dusk. It came into use as a given name in the late Victorian years and has been on American records continuously ever since, in a long steady line rather than a single burst. Two syllables, spelled the way it sounds.
How old is the name Mavis?
Mavis first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Mavis alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 11,000 people named Mavis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mavis most popular?
Mavis peaked in 1924, reaching #270 nationally. Today it ranks #560, 290 places below that high. See the whole 1924 chart.
Mavis appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From mauvis (Old French) to Mavis
The story of Mavis
The word arrived in English from Old French mauvis and settled in as the literary name for the song thrush, appearing in poetry well into the nineteenth century after everyday speech had switched to "thrush". It was already in scattered use as a girl's name when Marie Corelli published The Sorrows of Satan in 1895, giving her heroine the name Mavis Clare; the novel was enormously read and the name spread widely in Britain, then in the United States. It became a genuine Anglo-American staple in the early twentieth century, and after decades of quiet it is being picked up again by a new set of parents. Very few English names are also, unchanged, the name of a bird.
Meaning
song thrush
From Middle English mavis, borrowed from Old French mauvis, the name for the thrush — a word English and Scottish poets kept alive long after ordinary speech dropped it.
How the name formed
- mauvisOld French
- mavisMiddle English word for the thrush
- MavisEnglish given name
Pronouncing Mavis
MAY-viss
Stress on the first syllable. The spelling gives the sound away, so it rarely needs repeating over the phone.
Nicknames for Mavis
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
- 1893
- Most girls named
- 1926556 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #270reached in 1924
- Change vs 2022
- +25.2%537 in 2025, from 429
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.
Mavis in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Michigan.
Maviss among us
people named Mavis are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,993 born in 2025 was named Mavis
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 Oma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mavis's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Oma climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Oma's path sketches the road Mavis is walking now.
Mavis is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Mavis is headed
Mavis looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 22% 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.
Mavis beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mavis in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds and short enough to write early — no correction required at the start of every school year.
- An unbroken record on American name lists stretching back to the Victorian era, so it is familiar rather than newly coined.
- A documented word meaning behind it: the song thrush, from Old French through Middle English poetry.
- Ready-made informal forms in Mave and Mavie, without needing anything invented.
- Most Mavises alive in the US today are in their eighties and older, so the name still reads as a grandmother's name to many ears. That is precisely what makes it available again, but the association is real for now.
- A child named Mavis will very likely be the only one in her school, which some children enjoy and others do not.
- The meaning is lovely and almost nobody knows it — "mavis" left everyday English long ago, so you will be the one explaining the bird.
- A widely sold typing-tutor program of the late twentieth century used the fictional name Mavis Beacon, and some adults will hear that first.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Mavis
Feminine · Old French roots · #560 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maviss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,000 people named Mavis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mavis in 2025?
- Mavis ranks #560 among US girl names in 2025, with 537 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mavis?
- About 1 in every 2,993 US girls born in 2025 was named Mavis — 537 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mavis with classmates?
- Mavis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mavis
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lilian#560 · Margo#559 · Jacqueline#558 · Armani#562 · Stephanie#557 · Della#563 · Kamryn#556 · Izabella#564
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mavis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mavis and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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