Humanverse

Maya vs Mayeli

American parents have registered 123,750 Mayas since 1880, against 1,047 Mayelis. Maya is still ahead, with 3,712 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Maya against Mayeli, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Maya Mayeli

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Maya has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1940 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2023, when Maya had 4,092 and Mayeli had 83.

Side by side

  Maya Mayeli
Total US births 123,7501,047
Most in one year 5,05383
Babies in 2025 3,71261
Estimated living today 122,0001,000
Median age today 157
Peak year 20062023
Best rank 57th girls2,244th girls
Rank in 2025 62nd2,778th
First recorded 19401989
Girls / boys 123,587 / 1631,047 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Mayas alive today are over 15; half the Mayelis are over 7. That is 8 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Maya and Mayeli.