Maxen
Masculine · “greatest”
Maxen looks like a modern American assembly, Max with an -en ending, and it also happens to be a genuine Welsh name: Macsen, which is how Welsh remembers a fourth-century Roman commander who was proclaimed emperor in Britain and marched away with an army that never came back.
How old is the name Maxen?
Maxen first appears in US birth records in 2002 — 23 years ago. The typical Maxen is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Maxen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maxen most popular?
Maxen peaked in 2016, reaching #2255 nationally. Today it ranks #4857, 2,602 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Maximus to Maxen
The story of Maxen
Magnus Maximus took the legions out of Britain in 383 and was killed five years later, and Welsh tradition turned that disaster into a story: The Dream of Macsen Wledig, in which an emperor dreams of a woman in a far country and goes to find her. Medieval Welsh genealogies claimed descent from him. Separately and much later, American families began extending Max with the -en ending that was fashionable everywhere, producing the same spelling from a different direction.
Meaningscholars disagree
greatest
If the name is read through Welsh Macsen, it comes from Latin Maximus, the greatest, and the descent is documented. If it is read as a modern American extension of Max, the same Latin word stands behind it by a different route. Either way the root is Maximus; the two roads differ only in how the name got here.
How the name formed
- Maximus
- Macsen
- Maxen
Related forms: Macsen · Maximus · Max
Pronouncing Maxen
MAK-sen
Two syllables, stress in front. Welsh says Macsen the same way, which is the reason the two spellings converge.
Nicknames for Maxen
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
- 2002
- Most boys named
- 201659 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2255reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- +5.3%20 in 2025, from 19
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.
Maxen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Macsen in Welsh — same name
- Maximus in Latin — related form
- Max in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Maxens among us
people named Maxen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was named Maxen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maxen
- #4857
- Maxen on the 2025 chart
- #856
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maxen went to 20 boys in 2025, but Macsen, Macksen and Maksen are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 72, which makes it the 856th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,001 places above the chart.
- Macsen40
- Maxen20
- Macksen7
- Maksen5
About 1 boy in 23,723 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 85,404 for Maxen itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ramy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maxen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ramy climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ramy's path sketches the road Maxen is walking now.
Maxen 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
Maxen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maxen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Max comes free as a short form and is entirely familiar everywhere.
- It has a real Welsh history available for families who want one.
- The spelling is short, phonetic and easy to write.
- Maxton, Maxen and Maxim are close enough to be substituted in speech.
- Macsen is the Welsh spelling, so families with Welsh connections may prefer that one.
- The -en ending marks it as recent to most American readers, whatever its Welsh history.
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Maxen
Masculine · #4857 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maxens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Maxen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maxen?
- Maxen is one of 4 recorded spellings. Macsen is the more common one — 40 births in 2025 against 20 for Maxen.
- How popular is the name Maxen in 2025?
- Maxen ranks #4857 among US boy names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maxen?
- About 1 in every 85,404 US boys born in 2025 was named Maxen — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maxen with classmates?
- Maxen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maxen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Carlyle#4857 · Russ#4857 · Hercules#4857 · Marcial#4857 · Lauro#4857 · Marin#4857 · Gil#4857 · Aloysius#4857
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maxen? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maxen and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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