Maxie
A diminutive form of Maximilian, derived from the Latin "maximus" meaning "greatest".
Name Census estimates that about 3,030 living Americans carry the first name Maxie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 53.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Maxie today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maxie births was 1935 (215 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maxie. 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 Maxie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Maxie sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
3.0K
~ 1 in 113,120 Americans
Peak year
1935
215 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2019 SSA rank
#6,065
Tracked since 1884
Census
Maxie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,880 people with the first name Maxie, which placed it at #5,778 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
#5,778
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,880 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maxie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maxie is White at 62.7%. The next largest groups are Black (25.8%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Maxie 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 Maxie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.7% · 1,806
- Black or African American25.8% · 743
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 177
- Two or more races2.3% · 67
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 59
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 28
Gender
Gender distribution for Maxie
Maxie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 8,648 total registrations, 4,640 (53.7%) were male and 4,008 (46.3%) were female.
Maxie as a male name
- Ranked #11,656 in 2019
- 6 male births in 2019
- Peak: 1935 (125 births)
Maxie as a female name
- Ranked #6,065 in 2024
- 20 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1917 (96 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Maxie on both sides of the split. Of the 2,874 people counted with this name, 1,605 were male (55.8%) and 1,269 were female (44.2%).
Popularity
Maxie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maxie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 1,686 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maxie 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 Maxie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maxies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. Texas, South Carolina, Kentucky recorded the most babies named Maxie, while Missouri, Ohio, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 233 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maxie
The name Maxie originates from the Latin name Maximus, which means "greatest" or "largest." It is a diminutive form of the name Maximilian, which was derived from the Roman family name Fabius Maximus. The name Maxie first appeared in the early medieval period, around the 5th or 6th century AD, and was popular among the Roman aristocracy.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Maxie can be found in the writings of the 6th-century Roman historian Procopius of Caesarea, who mentions a Roman general named Maxie who served under the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. The name also appears in various religious texts and historical records from the Middle Ages, particularly in Western Europe.
In the 9th century, there was a notable figure named Maxie the Confessor, who was a Benedictine monk and the founder of the Abbey of Cluny in France. He played a significant role in the Cluniac Reforms, which aimed to revive monastic life in Western Europe.
Another notable bearer of the name Maxie was Maxie Planudes, a 13th-century Byzantine scholar and grammarian who was known for his translations of classical Greek literature into medieval Greek. He was also a prominent figure in the literary circles of Constantinople.
During the Renaissance period, the name Maxie gained popularity among the Italian nobility. One of the most famous individuals with this name was Maxie Petrucci, who was the ruler of the Italian city-state of Siena from 1487 to 1512. He was known for his patronage of the arts and his efforts to modernize the city's infrastructure.
In the 16th century, there was a French nobleman named Maxie de Béthune, who served as the Duke of Sully and was a prominent military leader and statesman under King Henry IV of France. He played a crucial role in reforming the country's finances and implementing economic policies that helped stabilize the French monarchy.
People
Maxie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maxie 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
Maxie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maxie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,030 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maxie 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 113,120 US residents.
Is Maxie a common name?
We classify Maxie as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,648 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maxie most popular?
The single biggest year for Maxie was 1935, when 215 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maxie is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maxie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,880 people with the name Maxie, or 0.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,778 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 Maxie 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 Maxie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Maxie on both sides of the split. Of the 2,874 people counted with this name, 1,605 were male (55.8%) and 1,269 were female (44.2%). 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 Maxie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maxie is White at 62.7%. The next largest groups are Black (25.8%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Maxie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maxie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.7% (1,806 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 Maxie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maxie a male name?
Yes, 53.7% of people registered as Maxie in the SSA data are male. 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 Maxie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maxie 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 Maxie 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 common is the name Maxie?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.