Girls' name · peaked in 1880
May name popularity since 1925
18,847 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named May (98.0% girls, 2.0% boys). Half of them were born in 1947 or earlier, so the typical May is about 79 years old in 2026. May peaked in 1880 as the #57 name for girls, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.
Key facts
- US babies since 1925
- 18,847
- Named May, 1925–2025
- Peak year
- 1880
- #57 for girls that year
- In 2025
- Not top 1,000
- #1,233 for girls in 2025
- Girls / boys
- 98.0% girls
- 18,477 girls · 370 boys
- Most popular in
- Hawaii
- 9.27× its national share
Peak year is the year May made up the largest share of US girls, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.
May births per year, 1925–2025
The biggest year on this chart was 1925. Measured as a share of all babies, May peaked earlier, in 1880.
- Steepest fall: Between 1941 and 1946, May's share of baby girls fell by 40%, from 1 in 4,810 to 1 in 8,060.
- Fastest rise: Between 2020 and 2025, it became 1.5× more common, from 1 in 13,600 baby girls to 1 in 8,780.
Shaded on the chart. Both compare May's share of all US girls five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named May.
Decade by decade
Babies named May in each decade, and its rank among girls' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).
| Decade | Girls | Boys | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1925–29 | 3,644 | 73 | – |
| 1930s | 3,743 | 112 | #338 |
| 1940s | 2,319 | 36 | #514 |
| 1950s | 1,724 | 26 | #695 |
| 1960s | 1,111 | 35 | #999 |
| 1970s | 911 | 0 | #1,262 |
| 1980s | 1,223 | 59 | #1,079 |
| 1990s | 815 | 29 | #1,757 |
| 2000s | 884 | 0 | #2,000 |
| 2010s | 1,199 | 0 | #1,652 |
| 2020–25 | 904 | 0 | #1,233 |
Ranks count every name given to at least 5 girls that year, so they can go past 1,000.
Generation fingerprint
35.4% of babies named May from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Silent Generation years (1928–1945). The full split by generation:
Where May is most popular
The index compares May's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named May.
| State | Index | Babies |
|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | 9.27× | 398 |
| Mississippi | 3.99× | 664 |
| Arkansas | 2.46× | 347 |
| New York | 1.82× | 1,899 |
| South Carolina | 1.73× | 333 |
Other spellings
Spellings that sound like May and were given to at least 1,000 girls from 1925 to 2025, with the year each one was most popular.
| Spelling | Girls | Peak year |
|---|---|---|
| May (this page) | 18,477 | 1880 |
| Mai | 5,461 | 1990 |
Names with a similar story
Of the other 1999 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to May's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is May.
Names from the same era
Other common names that peaked within two years of May (1880).
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data