Mayer
Masculine · “one who shines”
Mayer is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,545 boys against 68 girls since 1880.
Mayer is a Jewish name from the Hebrew meir — one who shines — and separately a German word for a steward, and the two have been confused for centuries.
How old is the name Mayer?
Mayer first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Mayer alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 2,300 people named Mayer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mayer most popular?
Mayer peaked in 2021, reaching #1750 nationally. Today it ranks #1886, 136 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Where it comes from
From meir to Mayer
The story of Mayer
Rabbi Meir was a second-century sage of the Mishnah. The German Meier named the man who ran an estate for its owner. Ashkenazi Jews adopted the German spelling for the Hebrew name, and Mayer Amschel Rothschild founded the banking house in Frankfurt in the 1760s. It appears in American records in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
one who shines; steward
Two routes. From the Hebrew Meir, 'one who gives light', from a root about shining. Or from the German Meier, a tenant farmer or estate steward, from the Latin maior, 'greater'. Ashkenazi families used the German spelling for the Hebrew name, which merged them.
How the name formed
- meir
- Meier
- Mayer
Related forms: מאיר · Meier · Meyer
Pronouncing Mayer
MY-ur
Two syllables, stress on the first. Hebrew Meir is may-EER with the stress at the end.
Nicknames for Mayer
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 202192 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1750reached in 2021
- Change vs 2023
- −5.7%83 in 2025, from 88
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.
Mayer in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- מאיר in Hebrew — related form
- Meier in German — related form
- Meyer in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey, Texas.
Mayers among us
people named Mayer are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 20,579 born in 2025 was named Mayer
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 Larnell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mayer's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Larnell climbed just as high around 1957, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Larnell's path sketches the road Mayer is walking now.
Mayer 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 Mayer is headed
Mayer should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Mayer beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mayer in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The one-who-shines meaning is transparent and undisputed for the Hebrew route.
- The merger of a Hebrew name with a German occupation is a genuinely interesting history.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- The origin is genuinely split between Hebrew and German.
- Meyer and Meier are both equally established spellings.
- It reads as a surname before it reads as a given name.
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What they receive
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Mayer
Masculine · #1886 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mayers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Mayer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mayer in 2025?
- Mayer ranks #1886 among US boy names in 2025, with 83 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mayer?
- About 1 in every 20,579 US boys born in 2025 was named Mayer — 83 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mayer with classmates?
- Mayer will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mayer
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Adolfo#1886 · Rakan#1886 · Kyron#1886 · Xylo#1886 · Wolf#1886 · Hussein#1886 · Camdyn#1886 · Ezriel#1886
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mayer? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mayer and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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