Maxine

Where Maxine comes from

From Max + -ine. An English feminine form of Max coined at the end of the nineteenth century. Piecewise doublet of Maxina.
— Wiktionary's entry for Maxine
  • Latin
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1884
    First appearance
    #793 among girls, 8 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1923
    Peak, #76
    3,603 babies named Maxine — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1937
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #136.
  4. 1938
    Maxine Waters born
    United States Representative from California since 1991
  5. 1940
    Maxine Hong Kingston born
    Chinese American author
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Latin.
Namesakes
  • Maxine Waters · United States Representative from California since 1991, born 1938
  • Maxine Hong Kingston · Chinese American author, born 1940
  • Maxine Singer · American molecular biologist, 1931–2024
  • Maxine Kumin · American poet and author, 1925–2014
  • Maxine Peake · British actress, born 1974

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.