May
May is the 304th most common surname in the United States, shared by 101,571 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 2,943.
By the numbers
- People
- 101,571
- Rank
- 304th
- How common
- 1 in 2,943
- Per 100,000
- 34.0
Where the name comes from
Origin Middle English
From Middle English May, Mai, from Old French mai, from Latin Maius (“Maia's month”), from Maia, a Roman earth goddess.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Who bears the name
How people with the surname May described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:
Notable people called May
- Theresa May (born 1956)Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2019
- Brian May (born 1947)British musician
- Karl May (1842–1912)German writer
- Ralphie May (1972–2017)American stand-up comedian
- Rollo May (1909–1994)American psychologist
- James May (born 1963)English television presenter and journalist
- Elaine May (born 1932)American screenwriter, film director, actress, and comedian
- Isabel May (born 2000)American actress
People named May with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Surnames like May
Also a first name
May has been given to 50,099 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1919. See it as a given name.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.