May
May is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 168 births. Its best rank was 57th, in 1880, 1883.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 1680.01% of girls
- Peak year
- 1919981 births
- Best rank
- #57first in 1880
- Since 1880
- 49,216people given the name
The story in the numbers
49,216 girls have been named May in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1919, with 981 births.
The name has all but left use: 168 births in 2024, against 981 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1918, and the 1920s alone account for 17%. It has spent 85 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 22 of them in the top 100.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named May | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 5,881 | |
| 1890s | 6,880 | |
| 1900s | 5,546 | |
| 1910s | 8,096 | |
| 1920s | 8,164 | |
| 1930s | 3,743 | |
| 1940s | 2,319 | |
| 1950s | 1,724 | |
| 1960s | 1,111 | |
| 1970s | 911 | |
| 1980s | 1,223 | |
| 1990s | 815 | |
| 2000s | 884 | |
| 2010s | 1,199 | |
| 2020s | 720 |
In 1919, its biggest year
May was the 194th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1919 were Mary, Helen, Dorothy, Margaret and Ruth. See all of 1919.
Names that rose and fell with May
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Effiepeak 1919
- Augustapeak 1915
- Minniepeak 1916
- Lizziepeak 1919
- Myrtiepeak 1917
- Nanniepeak 1920
- Nettiepeak 1918
- Ettapeak 1920
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.