Mavis
Meaning
the song thrush (Old French mauvis); first used as a given name by Marie Corelli in 1895
The story
Mavis is the bird: the English word for the song thrush, from the Old French mauvis, of uncertain origin, and Behind the Name records exactly where it became a name, in Marie Corelli's 1895 novel The Sorrows of Satan, which gave it to a character. The American record then runs a full century-cycle: about 1,700 girls in the 1910s, about 5,500 in the 1920s, a long slide to about 128 in the 2000s, then the turn, about 2,100 in the 2010s and about 2,700 so far this decade, already past the whole 2010s total and past every completed decade except the 1920s and 1930s. A name a novelist first set on a character, named for a singing bird, that sang, went quiet for half a century, and is singing again.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Mavis peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
86 people · the #45,833 first name in Brazil · median age 6
Among people named Mavis living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 25 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Mavis
People given the name Mavis in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1940 to 2025. 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 Mavis deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Mavis 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 Mavis fits with your family’s names and surname.
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