Max

133,914 people in America carry this name — ranked #423 of 923.

A name being given more often than it was a generation ago.

Say it MAKS

1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

M AE1 K S — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 133,914 2020 Census
  • Rank #423 Common
  • Per 100,000 44.3 about 1 in 2,475 people
  • As a surname 2,519 ranked #11,886 the other way round

The meaning and origin of Max

Latin in origin, reading literally as “greatest”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Max name popularity by year

157,079 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2009, with 3,966 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00 10s 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2010s. It has been given more often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names for Max

One syllable, so a longer middle name gives the whole a rhythm.

Better avoided

  • Max Michael — same opening
  • Max Matthew — same opening
  • Max Steven — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

On the way up

Max is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Max used for boys or for girls?

99.3% men
991 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Full names people carry

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Who answers to it now

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 72.5%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 2.6%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 16.0%
  • Two or more races — 4.2%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 4.2%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

This name in other languages

  • Maxa German
  • Maksa Ill
  • Maxime French
  • Maximus
  • Massimo Italian
  • Maksica Ill
  • Maximien French

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Names with the same rhythm as Max

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 1 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Try it Full-Name Estimator

Add a surname and see how many Americans carry the two together.

Open Full-Name Estimator on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Latin origin