She’s small but mighty, packing a surprise amount of style into a mere three letters.
Thanks to RockingFetal for suggesting Mae as Name of the Day.
Every generation has its favorite mini names, from the antique Ida to 70s sensation Amy to the oh-so-current Ava.
Mae isn’t just a name, she’s a time of the year. If you’re hearing lyrics about “strolling through the park in the merry, merry month of” surely you’re not alone. May and Mae were nearly tied for popularity in the late nineteenth century, but today, May feels slightly more like a month and Mae just a smidge more like a given name.
Of course, April, June and even January are bestowed as given names, so the calendar reference is not outlandish. In the US, May marks the start of Summer – also a popular choice for girls.
Many a famous Mae started out as Mary, including a Hollywood star and an English queen.
Mae West, she of the “come up and see me sometime” come-on, was born Mary. She didn’t become a movie star until she was in her late 30s. In 1933, she and Cary Grant co-starred in She Done Him Wrong, an Oscar-nominated flick that put the ailing Paramount Pictures back in the black. West became a megastar and a wealthy woman by 1935. Censorship hurt her career, but her image lingers. Mae is sweet, but the daring Ms. West keeps her from being too precious.
The most recent Queen Mary of England – grandmother to the current queen, Elizabeth II, was born Princes Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes of Teck. Her family called her May, a nod to both her second of eight (!) names and the month of her birth. May married the soon-to-be King George V of England in 1893.
And if the Hollywood star and English queen weren’t enough, there’s a goddess, too.
Most agree that the month of May honors Roman earth goddess Maia or Maja, currently a Top 100 pick in the US as Maya and not too far from fellow mini name Mia. The English word May evolved via the French mai, from the Latin maius.
In Greek myth, Maia was the eldest of seven sisters, known as the Pleiades, the daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Today they’re a constellation. Maia is also mom to messenger god Hermes and probably traces her roots to an even older goddess of spring and all things bountiful.
Mae can be as gentle as Grace or Hope. It’s an image reinforced by Newland Archer’s sweet society bride May Welland in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and Peter Parker’s (usually) fragile Aunt May in the Spider-man comics. There’s also a link to the Virgin Mary in Catholicism – the month May is dedicated to Mary.
But there’s also Madonna’s Mae, a tough-as-nails New Yorker in 1992′s A League of Their Own. and Anjelica Huston’s Oscar-winning turn as Maerose Prizzi in 1985′s Prizzi’s Honor.
Other uses of Mae include:
- A botancial link, from a type of hawthorn called May;
- A place name, as in Victorian seaside resort Cape May, New Jersey;
- A middle name, as in the musical Maggie May and an alternative to Rae and Marie;
- A surname, as in Louisa May Alcott’s mom Abby May.
Comedian Ralphie May named his daughter June April, a sister for August. Don’t go there.
But overall, Mae makes for quite the stylish – and restrained – choice. Since neither version is the current US Top 1000, she’d make for a seldom-shared name that is perfectly familiar.
Mae is lovely. It brings up thoughts of May, but does seem more like a name… plus Mae West is pretty cool! Had we gone with the name we had chosen and leaned toward for more than half of my pregnancy with my daughter (Isadora), Mae would have been her middle name – it felt like it softened the feistier first.
My only small issue with Mae is that it is a spelling variant and that means having to correct May to Mae repeatedly. But, it’s only three letters, so spelling out M-A-E doesn’t have quite the same onus as spelling out other such spelling variant names.
Overall Mae packs a lot of character into 3 letters and I like it!
I think this is also a perfect choice for the daughter of a mixed Japanese/Chinese and white background; could even be spelled Mai or Mei if they wanted to really honour their Asian roots.
Good point!
I like Mae a lot. It would have been in a my favourite girl names in 2005, but it doesn’t work well with our last name.
True about having to spell it out – but the shortness of it does make that not such a huge deal.
I had a great-great aunt named May, and I always thought that Mae would be a good middle name to honor her. I don’t think I would ever use it as a first name, it seems to slight for a first name for me. But it could make a cute nickname for some of the longer Mary names. I love it as a middle, and will probably use it as such.
I don’t know why, but Mae’s never rocked my boat. I don’t mind it & there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just not doing anything for me. It’s more of a middle name type of name, personally. On the upside, it is feminine without being frilly
I do LOVE Maia/Maya & like Mia. I’m really feeling Pleione, though.
It’s actuallyquite funny, I really like the name Marie, but it’s common here as a FIRST name. So, Marie as MN for me isn’t the super-huge trend. It’s funny because I always got ‘Marie’s filler’ on forums.I do understand why, though I always found it ironic
I think Mae is a sweet name. I usually see her as a middle name when searching through BA’s, but I found a Mae Beatrix the other day that I thought was a great name.
Sarah
Mae is my grandma’s name. She changed it from Marianna in the ’30′s to be more trendy! Sad to say, it doesn’t work well with our last name or I would have used it as a middle.
I love Mae
It’s simple, sweet, and a bit spunky! For me, it conjures up images of a sassy little southern belle wearing a flowy white dress and her hair in pigtails!
I’ve been waiting impatiently for this. Thank you so much!
We’re using Mae as a second middle name for our baby who will hopefully come any day now. There’s a grandmother on each side of the family with this middle name, and one passed away during my pregnancy, so it has a lot of sentimental value.
I do think it’s more unpected as a first name, and I like it there too. I’ve considered Matilda nn Mae, but I’m too attached to Maud. I could never really decide if I preferred May or Mae, but Mae is the family spelling. I think Mae works better with our adjective/noun surname too. Mae seems fiestier and May more elegant.
Congratulations! I didn’t realize you were so close to the big day. What a lovely, lovely choice and a nice way to honor loved ones, too.
I do like Mae as a middle name; one of my aunts had the double name Cleta Mae until adulthood when she’s been just Cleta.
Mae also makes me think of Madonna in A League of Their Own, whose character Mae told reporters, “It’s not just a name, it’s an attitude.”
I forgot about that quote. Thanks, Joy!
I find this name gorgeous. When I was eight I named the most beautiful doll I owned Mae because I wanted to make sure that her name was special (a lot of my other dolls ended up being named Jackie). Also, I LOVE The Age of Innocence!
How sweet! Love that you had Jackie, Jackie, Jackie – and Mae.
I think Mae is a great name. Sweet and sassy. I know of one new baby with the mn Mae, but, more unusual, I just met a 20-something mom at my daughter’s play school named Mae. She is gorgeous, petite, blonde…just how I picture a Mae. It seems like such a cool name on her, I’m sure she’s the only one she ever knew under 80!
Love it! This one of the FEW names my husband and I agree on, but we don’t agree on whether it should be a nickname or the given name.
Anyways, it’s a crisp and sweet at the same time, lovely.
I love this name – has the perfect mix of sweet & sassy. But I had such a hard time finding a middle name that had any kind of flow (We use amily names as middle names, which limits things) – it just seems more natural as a really adorable middle name.
My grandmother’s middle name was May and my mother’s is Mae. If we hadn’t used my last name as a middle name, we probably would have used one of these as Lydia’s middle name.
Mae is my middle name! I like it. It’s unusual. It was my great-great-grandmother’s name, and I’d like to continue to pass it on as a middle name for a daughter if I have one. There’s an actress in her early 20s named Mae Whitman who’s been on Arrested Development and in a few movies. I find it interesting that people use it as a first name. It’s a little short for a first name, but it’s sweet and fun.
I agree – Mae is a name, May is a month. To complicate matters, I was also born in May, but my mom thought her due date was at the end of April, so that had nothing to do with it. They weren’t all that accurate back in the early 80s, I’m afraid!
I do like Mae – she’s surprising to hear on a child today, but fresh and interesting, too. It’s a lot of mileage out of three little letters!
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