Maylen
Feminine
Maylen is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 840 girls against 7 boys since 1880.
Marry in May and you rue the day. The superstition is Roman: Ovid records that May was unlucky for weddings because the Lemuria, the festival for placating the restless dead, fell in it. Two thousand years later English speakers still repeat the rule without knowing they are avoiding ghosts.
How old is the name Maylen?
Maylen first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Maylen is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 800 people named Maylen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maylen most popular?
Maylen peaked in 2012, reaching #2426 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 6,434 places below that high. See the whole 2012 chart.
Where it comes from
From May to Maylen
Our story of Maylen
Our reading is that the May marriage taboo is one of the better documented survivals in English folk practice and its Roman source is explicit. Ovid, in the Fasti, has the goddess Flora explain that May is a bad month for weddings because the Lemuria falls in it, a three-day festival in which the head of a household walked barefoot through the house at midnight throwing black beans over his shoulder to buy off the ghosts of the family dead. Weddings during it were avoided. The rule was recorded in Britain from the medieval period and was still being followed in the nineteenth century, when statistics show a real dip in May marriages in England. Meanwhile the hawthorn is called may in English because it flowers then, and bringing it indoors was separately considered unlucky, which is a second and unrelated superstition attached to the same word.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Maylen joins May to the -len ending. May is the month, named for the Roman goddess Maia; a clip of Mary, Margaret or Mabel; and the English name for hawthorn blossom, which flowers in that month. The -len ending is an American suffix with no meaning. Which sense of May a family intends is not recoverable. It peaks in 2012.
How the name formed
- May
- Maylen
Pronouncing Maylen
MAY-lin
Two syllables, stress on the first. The final vowel is fully reduced, so Maylen, Maylin and Maylyn are homophones and only the spelling separates them.
Nicknames for Maylen
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
- 1989
- Most girls named
- 201276 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2426reached in 2012
- Change vs 2024
- −70.3%11 in 2025, from 37
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.
Maylen in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Maylens among us
people named Maylen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Maylen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maylen
- #8860
- Maylen on the 2025 chart
- #886
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maylen went to 11 girls in 2025, but Mayleen, Mailen and Maileen are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 74, which makes it the 886th most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,974 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 21,720 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 146,115 for Maylen 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 Jeneane test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maylen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jeneane climbed just as high around 1931, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jeneane's path sketches the road Maylen is walking now.
Maylen 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
Maylen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maylen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- May is a complete and pleasant short form.
- The name is short and easy to say.
- The sound is entirely familiar.
- Maylin and Maelyn are competing spellings.
- The ending carries no meaning.
- Which sense of May is meant cannot be recovered.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Maylen 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 Maylen? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Maylen
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maylens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Maylen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maylen?
- Maylen is one of 4 recorded spellings. Mayleen is the more common one — 25 births in 2025 against 11 for Maylen.
- How popular is the name Maylen in 2025?
- Maylen ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maylen?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Maylen — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maylen with classmates?
- Maylen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maylen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maylen? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maylen and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle