Maximo
Masculine · “greatest”
Maximo is the Spanish and Portuguese shape of Maximus, a name Romans used to mean simply "the greatest." It has three even syllables that land on the first, and it folds down to Max without any effort at all. Two thousand years of use sit behind it, and it is still arriving in American kindergartens.
How old is the name Maximo?
Maximo first appears in US birth records in 1903 — 122 years ago. The typical Maximo alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 8,600 people named Maximo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maximo most popular?
Maximo peaked in 2023, reaching #578 nationally. Today it ranks #580, 2 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Maximo appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Maximus to Maximo
The story of Maximo
Maximus began as a Roman cognomen, an honorific tacked onto a family name, and it was common enough across the Latin-speaking world to be handed down for generations. Early Christianity gave it a second life: several saints of the first millennium bore the name, which kept it in liturgical calendars long after the empire had gone. As Latin broke into the Romance languages, the name went with it — Massimo in Italian, Maxime in French, Máximo in Spanish and Portuguese. That Spanish form, with or without its accent, is the one that reached the United States, and it remains most at home in Spanish-speaking families here.
Meaning
greatest
From Latin maximus, the superlative of magnus, "great" — literally "greatest, largest."
How the name formed
- Maximus
- Máximo
- Maximo
Related forms: Máximo · Máximo · Maximus · Massimo · Maksim · Maxime
Pronouncing Maximo
MAK-see-mo
Stress falls on the first syllable in both Spanish and English; the Spanish spelling Máximo marks it with an accent. Expect an occasional mak-SEE-mo from people meeting it in print.
Nicknames for Maximo
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
- 1903
- Most boys named
- 2025506 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #578reached in 2023
- Change vs 2023
- +1.6%506 in 2025, from 498
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.
Maximo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Máximo in Spanish — spelling variant
- Máximo in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Maximus in Latin — same name
- Massimo in Italian — same name
- Maksim in Russian — same name
- Maxime in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Maximos among us
people named Maximo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,376 born in 2025 was named Maximo
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 Jessica test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maximo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jessica climbed just as high around 1985, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jessica's path sketches the road Maximo is walking now.
Maximo 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 Maximo is headed
Maximo looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 21% 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.
Maximo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maximo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Meaning is settled and easy to state: Latin for "greatest."
- Recognizable across Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French and Russian in closely related forms.
- Shortens instantly to Max, a nickname Americans already know and spell without help.
- Unbroken use since Roman times, carried forward by early Christian saints.
- The accent is the sticking point: Máximo in Spanish, Maximo in most US paperwork. Families who use both will spend a while correcting one or the other.
- Max is shared territory. It belongs equally to Maxwell, Maximilian and Maximus, so a child who goes by it may not be the only Max in the room even while remaining the only Maximo.
- It sits close enough to Maximus and Maximiliano that some people will reach for the wrong one on first hearing. A single calm repetition usually settles it for good.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Maximo
Masculine · #580 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maximos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,600 people named Maximo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Maximo in 2025?
- Maximo ranks #580 among US boy names in 2025, with 506 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maximo?
- About 1 in every 3,376 US boys born in 2025 was named Maximo — 506 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maximo with classmates?
- Maximo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maximo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Seth#581 · Atreus#582 · Kyren#582 · Kylan#578 · Allen#578 · Cassius#582 · Jamie#577 · Jamari#576
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maximo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maximo and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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