Max

Where Max comes from

Borrowed from German Max, diminutive of Maximilian in the 19th century, later also used as a nickname for Maxwell.
— Wiktionary's entry for Max
  • Latin
  • 1 syllable
Along the way
  1. 1879
    Max von Laue born
    German physicist, Nobel laureate and anti-Nazi
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #225 among boys — 52 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1882
    Max Born born
    German-Jewish physicist and mathematician
  4. 2011
    Peak, #96
    3,956 babies named Max — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Latin.
  • A diminutive of the male given names Maximilian and Maxwell.
  • A diminutive of the female given name Maxine.
Namesakes
  • Max Born · German-Jewish physicist and mathematician, 1882–1970
  • Max von Laue · German physicist, Nobel laureate and anti-Nazi, 1879–1960
  • Max Euwe · Dutch chess player and mathematician, 1901–1981
  • Max Frisch · Swiss playwrighter and novelist, 1911–1991
  • Max Scheler · German philosopher, 1874–1928

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.