← Back to The Age of Revolutions
Girl · English, from Hebrew and Latin sources
May
Say it: MAY
Meaning
A pet form of Mary or Margaret, also taken as the name of the month (Latin Maius, probably linked to the goddess Maia) and of hawthorn blossom called 'may'.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Fashionable in Victorian England and America, often as a pet name that became an independent name.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1880s
In the United States
- 49,309 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1888, about 1 in 228 girls
- 118 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Mae, Mai
Famous bearers
- May Sarton, American poet and novelist
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.