Mae West by garann via Flickr
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on March 15, 2010. It was revised and re-posted on May 6, 2013.
She’s small but mighty, packing serious 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. In the US, May marks the start of Summer – also a popular choice for girls.
Many a famous Mae started out as Mary.
Mae West, she of the “come up and see me sometime” come-on, was born Mary Jane. 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.
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 name 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.
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.
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 Aunt May in Spider-man.
There’s also a link to the Virgin Mary in Catholicism – the month of 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, lending her a hint of literary vibe.
Comedian Ralphie May named his daughter June April, a sister for August. And May names abound.
Overall, Mae makes for quite the stylish – and restrained – choice. Mae ranked just #803 in 2011, while May remains unranked. She’s an under-the-radar mini-name that would wear well in 2013.
Lucy Small says
June 4, 2014 at 6:43 AMMy 4 month old daughter is Mae with the middle name Harper. We loved it for it’s simplicity and sassiness. I think it’s cute on a little girl, but strong and feminine for when she grows into a woman. I live in the UK and yes it is popular as a middle name, but have yet to meet another little girl with it as a first. I prefer Mae to May as I think it stands alone better as a name without being associated with the month or a word. Mae rocks!
appellationmountain says
June 4, 2014 at 7:07 AMMae Harper is SUCH a stylish combination – love it!
Shannon says
May 21, 2013 at 10:06 AMI love Mae. I love the simplicity of it. Besides Mary, what other names could you use to ‘ get to’ Mae if you were going to use it as a nick name?
Josie says
August 17, 2013 at 10:05 PMI’ve heard it for Margaret, Mabel/Maybelle (I’ve heard these two said differently, MAY-b’l and may-BELLE) and Marie before. Presumably Mara would work too.
Vicki says
May 7, 2013 at 1:18 PMI like both Mae and May and have a May-born daughter, but over in the UK May/Mae has become almost ubiquitous as a middle name (along with Grace and Rose) so we didn’t go for it. There’s also a LOT of hyphenated -May/Mae names around in England and Wales such as Lily-May or Darcy-May. So certainly lots of popularity that perhaps isn’t reflected in the charts.
ailsa says
May 6, 2013 at 6:47 AMMae is extremely popular here in Wales at the moment – it is the Welsh spelling of the more usual May.
Meredith says
October 28, 2010 at 7:54 PMMae 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!
appellationmountain says
October 29, 2010 at 6:28 AMI 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!
C in DC says
September 13, 2010 at 1:17 PMMy 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.
Megan says
March 20, 2010 at 10:26 PMI 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.
Julie says
March 16, 2010 at 6:02 PMLove 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.
caroline says
March 16, 2010 at 11:18 AMI 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!
Charlotte Vera says
March 15, 2010 at 5:20 PMI 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!
appellationmountain says
March 17, 2010 at 10:41 AMHow sweet! Love that you had Jackie, Jackie, Jackie – and Mae. 🙂
Joy says
March 15, 2010 at 2:36 PMI 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.”
appellationmountain says
March 17, 2010 at 10:17 AMI forgot about that quote. Thanks, Joy!
rockingfetal says
March 15, 2010 at 1:25 PMI’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.
appellationmountain says
March 17, 2010 at 10:16 AMCongratulations! 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.
Whitney Gigandet says
March 15, 2010 at 12:29 PMI 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!
phoebesmom says
March 15, 2010 at 12:13 PMMae 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.
Names4Real says
March 15, 2010 at 11:50 AMI 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
UrbanAngel says
March 15, 2010 at 11:00 AMI 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
Lady Gwyn says
March 15, 2010 at 10:50 AMI 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.
British American says
March 15, 2010 at 10:21 AMI 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.
Elizabeth says
March 15, 2010 at 9:56 AMI 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.
UrbanAngel says
March 15, 2010 at 11:01 AMGood point!
JNE says
March 15, 2010 at 8:29 AMMae 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!