Maximus
Masculine · “greatest”
Maximus is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 34,662 boys against 17 girls since 1880.
Maximus is Latin at full stretch — the superlative of magnus, "great" — and it was worn as a cognomen by Roman families and later by bishops and saints. It has three clean syllables and lands on a hard k in the middle, and it arrives with Max already built in. Few names carry so much marble and still shorten so easily.
How old is the name Maximus?
Maximus first appears in US birth records in 1997 — 28 years ago. The typical Maximus is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 34,500 people named Maximus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maximus most popular?
Maximus peaked in 2016, reaching #187 nationally. Today it ranks #275, 88 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Where it comes from
From magnus (Latin: great) to Maximus
The story of Maximus
Maximus began as a Roman cognomen, an extra name marking distinction within a family, and it stayed in use through late antiquity and into the Christian era, borne by bishops and by Maximus the Confessor, the seventh-century Byzantine theologian. From the same root Latin grew Maximianus and, in the Middle Ages, Maximilian, which became a Habsburg family name and spread through German and Central European Europe. The bare Latin form Maximus, meanwhile, mostly stayed in books — read in Roman history, seen on inscriptions — rather than given to children in the English-speaking world. Its arrival on American birth records is recent, and the 2000 film Gladiator, whose central character is named Maximus, sits squarely at the front of that wave.
Meaning
greatest, largest
The Latin superlative of magnus, "great" — so not simply "great" but "greatest."
How the name formed
- magnusLatin: great
- Maximus
- Maximianus
- Maximilianus
- Maximilian
Related forms: Massimo · Máximo · Máximo · Maxime · Maksim · Maksym
Pronouncing Maximus
MAK-si-mus
Stress on the first syllable. The Latin -us ending is said plainly, "muss," not "moose." Rarely misheard once spoken, and the spelling follows the sound letter for letter.
Nicknames for Maximus
High
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
- 1997
- Most boys named
- 20142,137 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #187reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- +19.5%1,249 in 2025, from 1,045
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.
Maximus in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Massimo in Italian — same name
- Máximo in Spanish — same name
- Máximo in Portuguese — same name
- Maxime in French — related form
- Maksim in Russian — transliteration
- Maksym in Polish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Maximuss among us
people named Maximus are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,368 born in 2025 was named Maximus
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 Pedro test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maximus's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Pedro climbed just as high around 1992, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Pedro's path sketches the road Maximus is walking now.
Maximus 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 Maximus is headed
Maximus is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Maximus beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maximus in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds, and already familiar to most English speakers from Roman history — little correcting required.
- Comes with Max ready-made, a short form with centuries of independent use behind it.
- Documented continuously since Roman antiquity, so it is old rather than newly coined.
- Has close relatives in Italian, Spanish, French, Russian and Polish, which travels well across families and borders.
- It means "greatest," and it is a superlative in a way most names are not. Some people hear grandeur in that; a few hear it as a lot to place on an infant. Worth saying aloud a few times with your surname.
- The Gladiator connection is strong for adults who saw the film, less so for children who have not. It will be the first thing some people mention, at least for now.
- Shortening to Max solves any formality problem, but Max is a common name on its own — he may be one of several Maxes in a room while remaining the only Maximus.
- This is a very recent wave, so nearly everyone carrying the name is still young. That means no established grown-up Maximuses to picture — only that the name itself is far older than its American record.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Maximus 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.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Maximus? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Maximus
Masculine · #275 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maximuss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 34,500 people named Maximus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Maximus in 2025?
- Maximus ranks #275 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,249 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maximus?
- About 1 in every 1,368 US boys born in 2025 was named Maximus — 1,249 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maximus with classmates?
- Maximus will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maximus
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bodie#275 · Javier#274 · Otto#277 · Eric#273 · Shiloh#278 · Malcolm#272 · Steven#271 · Benson#279
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maximus? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maximus and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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