Max
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Meaning
"greatest," through Maximilian or Maxim; also short for Maxwell, a Scottish surname meaning "Mack's stream"
Famously borne by Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal and Affirm.
The story
When Max is short for Maximilian or Maxim, its history reaches back to Latin maximus, meaning "greatest." Romans used Maximus as a cognomen, an extra name that could distinguish a person or family. Maximilian comes from the Roman name Maximilianus, part of that same name family.
The name had a Christian history long before the Habsburg ruling family used it. The account of Maximilian of Tebessa's death describes him in Roman North Africa, refusing military service because of his Christian faith and receiving a death sentence in 295.
Emperor Frederick III chose Maximilian for his son, born in 1459, reusing a name that already existed. According to a traditional account, he hoped the boy would share the virtues of the Roman commanders Fabius Maximus and Scipio Aemilianus. His family, the Habsburgs, used claims of descent from ancient heroes to support its right to rule an empire. Maximilian remained in royal use, borne by Holy Roman emperors, kings of Bavaria and a Habsburg emperor of Mexico.
The short form also has a long history of use in Germany. The Society for the German Language, known by the German initials GfdS, describes Max as very common during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It later became less common, then returned to wider use from the 1990s.
Max also shortens Maxim, a Czech form of Maximus that is also used when Russian forms of the name are written in the Latin alphabet. This branch reaches the same meaning, "greatest," without passing through Maximilian.
In English, Max can also be short for Maxwell, which comes from a Scottish surname meaning "Mack’s stream." This is a separate name history from the Roman family: Maxwell does not get its meaning from the Latin word for "greatest."
In 1900, Max Planck was trying to explain the energy given off by heated objects. A wire glowing red and then white as it gets hotter is a familiar example. To find a formula that agreed with measurements, he treated energy in his calculation as portions of a definite size, called quanta. This broke with the usual assumption in physics at the time that energy could vary smoothly, without steps. His work helped found quantum theory, a new approach to physics built on such separate amounts of energy, and began a revolution in the field. The discovery earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Maurice Sendak gives Max a kingdom of his own in the picture book Where the Wild Things Are, then brings its young king home to find his supper waiting.
The formal names behind Max
Max is an established short form of each of these names.
Maximilian · Latin origin · "greatest," from Latin maximus through the Roman name Maximilianus, borne by an early Christian saint long before the Habsburg emperors. Max is a familiar short form
Maxwell · Scottish origin · "Mack's stream", from a Scottish surname
Maximus · Latin origin · "greatest"
Maxine · Latin origin · greatest (feminine of Max); famously borne by Maxine Hong Kingston, Chinese-American memoirist known for The Woman Warrior
Maximiliano · Latin origin · elaboration of Maximilian, "greatest"
Max across languages
One shared root links 6 names across 4 languages.
Shared root: from Latin maximus "greatest", via the Roman name Maximilianus (a derivative of Maximus borne by a 3rd-century saint); the tale that it was coined for the Habsburg heir from Maximus + Aemilianus is legend; Max is the shared short form
The constellation
More branches
How popular is Max around the world?
In the United States, 13,976 babies were named Max between 2020 and 2025. In South Australia, 72 boys were registered as Max in 2017.
Max is on the official records of the United States, South Australia, Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Austria, England and Wales, New Zealand, Canada, New South Wales, Spain, Chile, Poland, France, Brazil, Mexico City and Argentina.
Max crosses languages: it is in the latest top 300 of an English-speaking birth record and of a Spanish-speaking one. The full list: English and Spanish
United States
1 in 1,600
In the United States, 13,976 babies were named Max between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Max peaked in the 2010s. Max went to 3,445 US babies in 2015 and 2,066 in 2025, 60% of the earlier figure.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
South Australia
1 in 2502017
In South Australia, 72 boys were registered as Max in 2017.
share of that year’s name registrations
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Norway
1 in 290register 2026
In Norway, 97 boys were given the name Max in 2025.
share of the boys on the register for that year, SSB’s own figure
People who have or have had a Norwegian ID number, emigrants left out, from Statistics Norway’s name statistics (release of January 2026): by year of birth for 1945–2020 (everyone born that year who was ever registered in Norway, including people who registered later and people who have since died) and by year of naming from 2021; only first names carried by 200 or more living people are listed, counts under 4 are withheld, and SSB merges spellings that differ only by letters outside the Norwegian alphabet. The shares are SSB’s own, of the people of that sex and year in that count; the 2025 figure counts the children named that year, and no year is a count of births. Source: Statistics Norway (SSB), table 10467 (updated 2026-01-28)
Scotland
1 in 350
In Scotland, 132 boys named Max were registered in 2024, the 29th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Births registered in Scotland; different spellings count separately but accents are merged at source, and any spelling under 3 in total is suppressed. Source: National Records of Scotland, babies' first names
Ireland
1 in 450
In Ireland, 120 boys named Max were born in 2025, the 41st most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
Austria
1 in 470
In Austria, 163 boys named Max were born in 2025, the 51st most common name among boys that year, spellings that differ only by special characters counted together.
share of that year’s births on record
Live births in Austria by year of birth, 1984–2025, from Statistik Austria’s first-name statistics; spellings that differ only by special characters are counted together (umlauts stay apart), every name down to a single birth is published, and the count covers babies with Austrian citizenship only until 2009, every baby from 2010, and from 2015 also births abroad to mothers living in Austria. Shares divide by Statistik Austria’s count of live births from 2010, and before that by the file’s own total for the year. Source: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at (OGDEXT_VORNAMEN_1, updated 2026-07-09)
England and Wales
1 in 550
In England and Wales, 1,061 boys named Max were born in 2025, the 48th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
New Zealand
1 in 680
In New Zealand, 85 boys named Max were registered in 2025.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from New Zealand birth registrations, grouped by registration year; any name under 10 in a year is excluded at source. Shares divide by Stats NZ’s count of births registered to mothers living in New Zealand, under 1% below the registry’s own count. Source: Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand), baby name popularity over time
Canada
1 in 1,100
In Canada, 333 boys named Max were born in 2024, the 86th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
New South Wales
#30 · 2025
In New South Wales, 184 boys named Max were registered in 2025, ranked 30th in that year’s top 100 for boys.
share of that year’s top-100 registrations
New South Wales (not all of Australia) publishes only each year’s 100 most popular names per sex, so a missing year means below that top 100, not rare. Source: NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, popular baby names
Spain
#100 · 2024
In Spain, 6,686 residents are named Max, the 349th most common name among men, with a mean age of 12.3 years.
In Spain, Max was the 100th most common name among boys born in 2024.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Chile
1 in 1,400
In Chile, 126 boys were registered as Max in 2021, every accent spelling counted together.
share of that year’s name registrations
First-name registrations with Chile’s civil registry by year of registration, 1920–2021, counted as spelling groups (Sofía, Sofia and Sofìa are one name, shown with its most-registered spelling); the registry withholds nothing, nametree keeps the groups that reached 5 registrations in some year, and shares divide by every registration of the year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación (Chile) via the guaguas package, first-name registrations 1920-2021
Poland
1 in 3,400
In Poland, 72 boys named Max were born in 2025, the 144th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First names given to children born in Poland by year of birth, 2000–2025, from the PESEL population register (Ministry of Digital Affairs); exact spellings count separately (Łukasz and Lukasz are different names), names given fewer than 5 times in a year were left off the list through 2012 and fewer than 2 times from 2013, and the register also counts children born abroad, so its yearly sums run above Poland’s live births. Shares divide by the register’s own published total for the year, never by births. Source: Ministry of Digital Affairs, PESEL register (dane.gov.pl)
France
1 in 4,800
In France, about 110 boys named Max were born in 2025, the 419th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s births on record
Births in France by year of birth, from INSEE’s fichier des prénoms (1900–2025; Mayotte from 2012); exact spellings count separately (Léo and Leo are different names), any spelling under 3 in a year and sex is withheld at source, every count is rounded to the nearest 5 at source, and nametree keeps the spellings that reached 20 in some year. Shares divide by INSEE’s count of births in France from 1957, and before that by the file’s own total for the year; INSEE says the file is not complete before 1946. Source: Insee, fichier des prénoms (last updated 2026-07-16)
Brazil
1 in 5,600
At the 2022 census, 36,236 people in Brazil were named Max, the 720th most common name, with a median age of 29.
Among people named Max living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
The census also counted 1,431 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart. People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Mexico City City
1 in 8,400
In Mexico City, there were 14 registrations of Max in 2022.
share of that year’s registrations in the city
Civil-registry acts in Mexico City by registration year. Counts are lower bounds (names under 6 in a month and borough are removed at source) and count name-instances, not people; compound names are split, so “Maria Jose” counts under each part. 2023, a partial extract through 3 Mar with no cell on record for this name, is excluded. Source: Registro Civil of Mexico City, open data portal, registered given names 2000-2023
Argentina
1 in 12,000
In Argentina, 55 newborns were given the name Max in 2024.
share of that year’s name registrations
Given-name components of births in Argentina 2012–2024; national cells are lower bounds and no sex split is published. Source: RENAPER (Argentina), Dirección Nacional de Población, given names 2012-2024
Montevideo City
last on record 2010
Max is not on the 2011 record for Montevideo, whose registry withholds nothing, so the spelling was not given there that year.
The count never rose above 3 in a year, too few to chart.
Births in the department of Montevideo (not all of Uruguay) by first name and year of birth, 1940–2011, from the city’s civil registry, which writes names in capitals, almost always without accents; counted as spelling groups (accent and punctuation variants merged), nothing is withheld at source, and 2012 is excluded as a partial year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil, Intendencia de Montevideo, Partidas de Registro Civil de Montevideo (Licencia de Datos Abiertos - Uruguay); 2012 dropped as partial
Puerto Rico
last on record 2023
Max is not on the 2025 record for Puerto Rico, which withholds births under 5, and 99 babies have carried the name there since 1998.
share of that year’s births on record
First given name only, from Social Security records of births in Puerto Rico; any name-sex-year under 5 births is withheld at source. Shares divide by the Puerto Rico Demographic Registry’s count of births on the island; the 2025 count is provisional. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, territory name file (Puerto Rico)
When you meet Max
Most people given the name Max in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
Keep exploring
Names like Max · Names that go with Max · Middle names for Max · Jewish American baby names · Names of founders and builders · Names of geniuses and inventors · Short names · What is Max short for? · Climbers and fallers
The Max deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Max 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 Max fits with your family’s names and surname.
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