Mae
Meaning
possibly a form of Mary, or from the month of May; famously borne by Mae Jemison, engineer and physician who became the first Black woman in space
The story
Mae is a small Victorian jewel, most often explained as a pet form of Mary or a borrowing of the month of May, its spelling softened into something all its own. American parents adored it around 1900, when it sat at its all-time peak, then let it slide for the better part of a century. The bearer who gives it new gravity is Mae Jemison, the engineer and physician who flew aboard the shuttle Endeavour in 1992 and became the first Black woman in space, a Peace Corps doctor turned astronaut who has spent the years since pulling students toward science. Since the 2000s Mae has been climbing again on the strength of the vintage revival, and the chart below shows the shape plainly: a name that dipped low and is now arcing back toward the light.
The formal names behind Mae
Mae is an established short form of this name.
Mary · Hebrew origin · bitter; beloved
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Mae peaked in the 1890s and the 1900s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
297 people · the #19,191 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 57
Among people named Mae living in Brazil at the 2022 census, roughly as many were born in the 1950s as in the 1960s, more than in any other decade.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Mae
People given the name Mae in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1940 to 2019. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Mae deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Mae truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Mae fits with your family’s names and surname.
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