Mae

Where Mae comes from

The dictionaries list Mae as a given name — a female given name; popular as a middle name — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #71 among girls — 344 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1893
    Mae West born
    American actress, singer, screenwriter, and writer
  3. 1895
    Peak, #52
    1,193 babies named Mae — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1954
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #371.
  5. 1956
    Mae Jemison born
    American doctor and NASA astronaut
In the dictionary
  • A female given name; popular as a middle name.
Namesakes
  • Mae West · American actress, singer, screenwriter, and writer, 1893–1980
  • Mae Jemison · American doctor and NASA astronaut, born 1956
  • Mae Whitman · American actress, born 1988
  • Mae Marsh · American actress, 1894–1968
  • Mae Muller · British singer, born 1997

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.