How popular is the baby name Mae in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Mae.

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Popularity of the baby name Mae


Posts that mention the name Mae

Twin boys named for Wiley Post and Will Rogers

Will Rogers (standing on wing) and Wiley Post in Alaska (August, 1935)
Will Rogers and Wiley Post

On July 10, 1935, Bert and Irlean Ash of Oklahoma City welcomed twin sons. The boys went without names — they were “designated merely as No. 1 and No. 2” — for more than a month.

Then, on August 15, a plane crash in northern Alaska killed two fellow Oklahomans — Wiley Post and Will Rogers. Post was the pioneering aviator who’d flown solo around the world in 1933 aboard the Winnie Mae, and Rogers was a popular entertainer and social commentator of the day.

Bert and Irlean decided to honor the pair by naming their sons Wiley Rogers Ash and Will Post Ash.

Bert was quoted as saying, “We hope the twins will be able to fly sometime.”

P.S. William Penn Adair “Will” Rogers, who was part Cherokee, was named after Cherokee leader William Penn Adair.

Update, July 2023: I recently stumbled upon another set of twins named after Post and Rogers!

Will Rogers Wallace and Wiley Post Wallace were born in Kenbridge, Virginia, on January 12, 1936.

[Their mother] had decided that if her 12th child was a boy, she’d name him Will Rogers Wallace after American humorist Will Rogers, who had died in a plane crash in August 1935 in Alaska.

But when the doctor announced that she was in labor with twins…she accepted his advice to name the younger boy after Rogers’ pilot, Wiley Post, who also died in the crash.

This second set of twins inspired me to check the U.S. data on both names. Turns out that both Wiley and Will saw an uptick in usage in 1935 specifically:

Boys named WileyBoys named Will
1937222 [rank: 364th]230 [rank: 355th]
1936257 [rank: 341st]234 [rank: 353rd]
1935286 [rank: 324th]305 [rank: 311th]
1934224 [rank: 366th]215 [rank: 370th]
1933216 [rank: 369th]224 [rank: 362nd]

Which of the two names do you prefer?

Sources:

Image: Will Rogers and Wiley Post (public domain)

[Latest update: Jul. 2023]

Mystery baby name: Wanza (Solved!)

Graph of the usage of the baby name Wanza in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Wanza

Wanza was a top debut name of 1915. That year, at least 33 U.S. babies were named Wanza:

  • 1919: 8 baby girls named Wanza
  • 1918: 12 baby girls named Wanza
  • 1917: 7 baby girls named Wanza
  • 1916: 13 baby girls named Wanza
  • 1915: 33 baby girls named Wanza [debut]
  • 1914: unlisted

The name kept appearing in the U.S. baby name data until the 1960s, but it never hit as high as 33 again.

Where did it come from?

I have no idea.

The name Wanda was on the rise from the late 1800s through the 1930s, and Wanda’s increasing popularity gave other Wan-names (e.g., Waneta, Wanita) a boost. This probably helped Wanza a bit. But it doesn’t explain why dozens of babies were suddenly named Wanza in 1915.

I thought I’d found the answer in Mae Van Norman Long’s novel The Wonder Woman, which features a character named Wanza, but the book wasn’t published until 1917 — following the trend, not sparking it.

Any ideas on this one?

Update, Apr. 2025: Looks like Anonymous has solved the mystery, yet again!

Illustration of Wanza Lyttle from "The Wonder Woman" (1915)
Wanza Lyttle

As it turns out, The Wonder Woman had been serialized in the popular women’s magazine McCall’s during 1915. (Here are direct links to the seven installments: June, July, August, September, October, November, and December.)

The character in question, Wanza Lyttle, was a “gay, quick-tempered, happy-hearted” young woman who drove a peddler’s cart. “She was the apple of her father’s eye, the pride of the village, and the delight of the steamboat men on the river.”

A big thanks to Anonymous, who has also helped us figure out Nerine and Zeline recently.

Source: SSA

Second image: Clipping from McCall’s magazine (Jul. 1915)

Wisconsin family with 22 children

Some of the Schoville family of Wisconsin (in 1950)
Some of the Schoville family (in 1950)

Fred and Edith Schoville of Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, had their first child in 1926, their last in 1952, and 20 in between. That’s a total of 22 children. All were single births.

Here are the names of all 22, plus as many of the birth years as I could verify.

  1. Marjorie Maxine (born in 1925)
  2. Freddie (b. 1926)
  3. Lola Jean (b. 1928)
  4. Betty Lavonne (b. 1929)
  5. Marlin Dwayne (b. 1932)
  6. Phyllis Marie (b. 1933)
  7. Donna Mae (b. 1934)
  8. Annabelle
  9. Patsy L.
  10. Larry Lee (b. 1938)
  11. Janice P. (b. 1939)
  12. Sharon H.
  13. Frederick P. (b. 1941)
  14. Susan Kay (b. 1942)
  15. Ronald A.
  16. Robert A. (b. 1945)
  17. Karen C. (b. 1946)
  18. Linda Lou (b. 1947)
  19. Gary G. (b. 1948)
  20. Charles William (b. 1949)
  21. Steven (b. 1951)
  22. Randy Joe (b. 1952)

More than half of the Schoville children are listed on the 1950 U.S. Census:

The Schoville family on the 1950 U.S. Census
The Schoville family (1950 U.S. Census)

Which girl name is your favorite? How about boy name?

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the Spokane Daily Chronicle (18 Apr. 1950)

[Latest update: Oct. 2024]

Where did the baby name Maeby come from?

The character Maeby Fünke from the TV series "Arrested Development" (2003-2006).
Maeby Fünke from “Arrested Development“

The curious name Maeby began appearing in the U.S. baby name data in the early 2000s:

  • 2008: 7 baby girls named Maeby
  • 2007: unlisted
  • 2006: 6 baby girls named Maeby [debut]
  • 2005: unlisted
  • 2004: unlisted

It debuted the last year Arrested Development was on the air, which is notable because the sitcom featured a teenage character named Maeby Fünke (played by actress Alia Shawkat).

According to Wikipedia…

Creator Mitchell Hurwitz named the character after his daughters Maisy and Phoebe. Hurwitz acknowledged the peculiar result of this blending, saying “It just seemed like crazy extra fun to think of weird names. I don’t want us to become too self-conscious about it but, yes, we do have some strange names.” Incidentally, she is often described as George Michael’s “Cousin Maeby,” a play on words making reference to the fact that they may not be related.

Maeby’s teenage counterpart/cousin on the show, George Michael Bluth, didn’t have the same impact on baby names; the compound name Georgemichael hasn’t been in the data since pop singer George Michael was popular back in the ’90s.

What about you — would you name your baby Maeby?