Maurice
Meaning
from Mauritius, ultimately Latin 'Maurus', 'Moorish/dark-skinned'
Goes by Mo
The story
Maurice traces to the Latin Maurus, a Roman word for a Moor, and it spread through Europe on the fame of Saint Maurice, the third-century commander of the Theban Legion, an Egyptian-born soldier so widely venerated that his statue stands in Magdeburg Cathedral. The French polished the name to a shine, and it came into English wearing an aristocratic accent it has never fully lost, later borne by the composer Maurice Ravel and the illustrator Maurice Sendak, who sent the wild things romping through children's bedrooms. Its American record is one of the strangest and most reassuring in the data: essentially a flat line. For thirteen decades Maurice has held nearly the same modest level, never surging, never collapsing, untouched by every wave of fashion that reshaped the names around it. Parents who want a name that will never feel dated could study that line for a long time.
Maurice around the world
One shared root links 4 names across 4 languages.
Shared root: from Latin Mauritius, from Maurus "North African, Moorish"
The constellation
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Maurice peaked in the 1900s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
402 people · the #15,523 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 500,000 · median age 51
Among people named Maurice living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1970s than in any other decade.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Maurice
People given the name Maurice in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1960 to 1999. 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 Maurice deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Maurice 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 Maurice fits with your family’s names and surname.
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