Humanverse

Maegen vs Maeve

American parents have registered 29,608 Maeves since 1880, against 875 Maegens. Maeve is still ahead, with 3,153 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Maegen against Maeve, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Maegen Maeve

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 81 years in which either name was published, Maeve for 70 years and Maegen for 11 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.

Side by side

  Maegen Maeve
Total US births 87529,608
Most in one year 533,153
Babies in 2025 under 53,153
Estimated living today 85029,000
Median age today 365
Peak year 19902025
Best rank 2,345th girls76th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked76th
First recorded 19741940
Girls / boys 875 / 029,608 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Maegens alive today are over 36; half the Maeves are over 5. That is 31 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Maegen and Maeve.