Mayme
Feminine · “bitter”
Mayme is Mamie with the first vowel written out. Both are nursery forms of Mary, and the difference between them is a nineteenth-century American decision about how to put a childhood sound on paper.
How old is the name Mayme?
Mayme was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Mayme alive today was born around 1909, making them about 116 years old. About 900 people named Mayme are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mayme most popular?
Mayme peaked in 1885, reaching #126 nationally. See the whole 1885 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Miryam to Mayme
The story of Mayme
Mary was so common in the English-speaking world that households needed ways to tell one from another, and the nursery supplied a whole family of forms: Molly, Polly, May, Mamie, Mayme. May was already an independent name, and Mayme looks like May with the pet ending attached, which is probably how it was heard. American families registered it as a legal name from the 1880s, and it peaked in the first decade of the twentieth century.
Meaningscholars disagree
bitter; beloved; sea
Through Mary, from the Hebrew Miryam, whose meaning has never been settled. 'Bitter', 'beloved' and 'rebellious' have all been proposed, along with an Egyptian element meaning beloved. Some families used the name for Margaret instead, in which case the meaning is the Greek margarites, 'pearl'.
How the name formed
- Miryam
- Mary
- Mamie
- Mayme
Related forms: Mamie · Máire · Marie
Pronouncing Mayme
MAYM
One syllable in most American use, rhyming with 'name'. Some families said it as two, MAY-mee, which is where the overlap with Mamie comes from.
Nicknames for Mayme
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1915291 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #126reached in 1885
- Change vs 2020
- +14.3%8 in 2024, from 7
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.
Mayme in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mamie in English — spelling variant
- Máire in Irish — related form
- Marie in French — related form
Maymes among us
people named Mayme are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Mayme has already lived its whole cycle: it rose, had its era, and has stepped off the charts. The fashion question is behind it — what lies ahead is the waiting room where revivals begin, once a name's first generation has grown distant enough for it to sound fresh again.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Mary stands behind it, the single most-used woman's name in European history.
- The spelling is phonetic in a way that Mamie is not.
- It is genuinely rare now while being entirely traditional in American records.
- Mamie and Mayme are both established and are often confused for each other.
- The name is strongly period-coded to the turn of the last century.
- Mary's own meaning is genuinely unsettled.
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What they receive
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Mayme
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Maymes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Mayme are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mayme in 2025?
- Mayme is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Mayme with classmates?
- Mayme will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mayme? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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