Humanverse

Maylene vs Maynard

American parents have registered 14,940 Maynards since 1880, against 1,198 Maylenes. But in 2025 it was Maylene that was commoner, 22 babies to 7.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Maylene against Maynard, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Maylene Maynard

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, Maynard for 118 years and Maylene for 25 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Maylene Maynard
Total US births 1,19814,940
Most in one year 41398
Babies in 2025 227
Estimated living today 1,1004,000
Median age today 1969
Peak year 20121922
Best rank 3,782nd girls279th boys
Rank in 2025 5,554th9,714th
First recorded 19181880
Girls / boys 1,198 / 022 / 14,918

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 Maynards alive today are over 69; half the Maylenes are over 19. That is 50 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: Maylene and Maynard.