Humanverse

Maylen vs Mayme

American parents have registered 10,928 Maymes since 1880, against 847 Maylens. But in 2025 it was Maylen that was commoner, 18 babies to fewer than five.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Maylen against Mayme, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Maylen Mayme

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

Of the 143 years in which either name was published, Mayme for 116 years and Maylen for 27 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Maylen Mayme
Total US births 84710,928
Most in one year 76291
Babies in 2025 18under 5
Estimated living today 840870
Median age today 1169
Peak year 20121915
Best rank 2,426th girls348th girls
Rank in 2025 8,860thunranked
First recorded 19891880
Girls / boys 840 / 710,928 / 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 Maymes alive today are over 69; half the Maylens are over 11. That is 58 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: Maylen and Mayme.