Maeve
An English feminine name of Irish Gaelic origin, meaning "she who intoxicates".
Name Census estimates that about 26,117 living Americans carry the first name Maeve. It sits at #75 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maeve today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maeve births was 2024 (3,098 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Julianne (26,073).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maeve. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Maeve with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Maeve is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
26K
~ 1 in 13,124 Americans
Peak year
2024
3,098 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#75
Tracked since 1940
Census
Maeve in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,961 people with the first name Maeve, which placed it at #1,982 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,982
National first-name rank
People counted
14K
13,961 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maeve
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maeve is White at 90.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.0%) and Hispanic (3.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Maeve described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Maeve at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.8% · 12,673
- Two or more races4.0% · 563
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 489
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 131
- Black or African American0.6% · 88
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 17
Popularity
Maeve: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maeve from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 12,728 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maeve by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Maeve during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maeves live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Massachusetts, Illinois recorded the most babies named Maeve, while Wyoming, North Dakota, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 485 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maeve
Maeve is an ancient Irish name derived from the Old Irish word 'máu' meaning 'cause of great joy'. It originated in Celtic culture and mythology, particularly in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. The name was first recorded in the 8th century AD.
In Irish folklore, Maeve (also spelled Medb or Meadhbh) was the legendary warrior queen of Connacht. She was renowned for her bravery, fierceness, and skill in battle. The epic tale of the Cattle Raid of Cooley revolves around her attempts to capture the renowned brown bull of Cooley.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Maeve was Medb ingen Fergus, a 6th century Queen of Connacht. Another notable figure was Princess Maeve of Munster, who lived in the 9th century AD.
Over the centuries, the name Maeve has been borne by several influential Irish women. Maeve O'Riada (1937-2012) was a prominent Irish actress and singer. Maeve Binchy (1940-2012) was a bestselling Irish novelist famous for her depictions of small-town life in Ireland.
In the 20th century, Maeve Brennan (1917-1993) was an acclaimed Irish short story writer and essayist who spent most of her life in New York. Maeve Gilmore (1917-1983) was an English stage and film actress known for her roles in Shakespearean productions.
Maeve Binchy, the beloved Irish novelist, was perhaps the most famous bearer of the name in modern times. Her novels, such as Circle of Friends and Tara Road, explored the lives of ordinary people in Ireland and were hugely popular worldwide.
People
Maeve + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maeve as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Maeve: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maeve?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 26,117 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maeve going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 13,124 US residents.
Is Maeve a common name?
We classify Maeve as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26,442 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maeve most popular?
The single biggest year for Maeve was 2024, when 3,098 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maeve is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maeve in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,961 people with the name Maeve, or 4.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,982 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Maeve in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Maeve?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maeve appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,956 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Maeve?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maeve is White at 90.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.0%) and Hispanic (3.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Maeve most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maeve in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.8% (12,673 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Maeve in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maeve a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maeve in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Maeve still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maeve in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Maeve can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Maeve?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.