ninan.org

Max

Boys' name · Millennial-era

Living in the US
~121,000 survival-weighted estimate
2025 rank
#180 among boys
Births in 2025
2,066 168,577 since 1880
Typical age
19 years, median

Max popularity over time

Max rank by birth year, 1880–2025Max ranked #225 in 1880 and #180 in 2025. Its best rank in the period was #96, in 2011.#100#180best #96 in 201118901920195019802010
Rank among US baby names by birth year, 1880–2025. Lower is more popular; the scale is logarithmic so the top of the chart is not compressed.

More children were named Max in 2009 than in any other year — 3,969 of them. It appears in the very first year SSA covers, 1880. Max has ranked inside the top 1,000 in 146 years.

As of 2025 the name sits at #180, with 2,066 births that year. The ten-year change is -40%.

Babies named Max per yearPeaks at 3,969 births in 2009.3,969 in 2009018901920195019802010
Recorded US births by year. The peak is labelled; the axis starts at zero.

How many people are named Max?

An estimated 121,000 living Americans are called Max. That is out of 168,577 recorded births since 1880.

This is a survival-weighted estimate, not a headcount: every recorded birth year is multiplied by the chance someone born that year is still alive, using the SSA period life table. How the estimate works.

How old is the average Max?

Median age among living Maxs: 19. More of them were born in the 2010s than in any other decade. By the site’s era rules that makes Max a millennial-era name.

Your Max

Ages of living people named MaxHalf of living Maxs are older than 19 and half younger.median 19020406080100
Estimated living bearers by age today. Each bar is a birth year, weighted by the chance someone born then is still alive.

Where Max is most common

Max is 4.2× as common in District of Columbia as it is nationally. Utah, Massachusetts and North Dakota follow.

Where Max is used more than average5 states use the name Max more than the national average.Alaska: not over-representedAKMaine: not over-representedMEVermont: not over-representedVTNew Hampshire: not over-representedNHWashington: not over-representedWAIdaho: not over-representedIDMontana: not over-representedMTNorth Dakota: 2.0× the national rateNDMinnesota: not over-representedMNIllinois: not over-representedILWisconsin: not over-representedWIMichigan: not over-representedMINew York: not over-representedNYOregon: not over-representedORNevada: not over-representedNVWyoming: not over-representedWYSouth Dakota: not over-representedSDIowa: not over-representedIAIndiana: not over-representedINOhio: not over-representedOHPennsylvania: not over-representedPANew Jersey: not over-representedNJConnecticut: not over-representedCTRhode Island: 1.9× the national rateRICalifornia: not over-representedCAUtah: 2.1× the national rateUTColorado: not over-representedCONebraska: not over-representedNEMissouri: not over-representedMOKentucky: not over-representedKYWest Virginia: not over-representedWVVirginia: not over-representedVAMaryland: not over-representedMDDelaware: not over-representedDEMassachusetts: 2.1× the national rateMAArizona: not over-representedAZNew Mexico: not over-representedNMKansas: not over-representedKSArkansas: not over-representedARTennessee: not over-representedTNNorth Carolina: not over-representedNCSouth Carolina: not over-representedSCDistrict of Columbia: 4.2× the national rateDCOklahoma: not over-representedOKLouisiana: not over-representedLAMississippi: not over-representedMSAlabama: not over-representedALGeorgia: not over-representedGAHawaii: not over-representedHITexas: not over-representedTXFlorida: not over-representedFL
Same as national3× or more
Location quotient, 2016–2025. Shaded states use the name more than the country does, relative to their own births. Exact figures are in the table below.
States where Max is over-represented, 2016–2025. The location quotient compares the state's share of the name with the national share.
StateBirthsvs national rate
District of Columbia 202 4.2×
Utah 581 2.1×
Massachusetts 826 2.1×
North Dakota 99 2.0×
Rhode Island 90 1.9×

Max in England and Wales

ONS recorded 1,061 births named Max in 2025, ranking it #48. That is 33% lower than five years earlier.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Counts below three are suppressed by ONS.

Where the name Max comes from

Borrowed from German Max, diminutive of Maximilian in the 19th century, later also used as a nickname for Maxwell.

Etymology summarised from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wiktionary entry.

Notable people named Max

Ordered by how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about them — a measure of reach, not of importance.
NameKnown forYearsEditions
Max Born German-Jewish physicist and mathematician 1882–1970 120
Max Verstappen Dutch and Belgian racing driver 1997 104
Max von Laue German physicist, Nobel laureate and anti-Nazi 1879–1960 93
Max Euwe Dutch chess player and mathematician 1901–1981 76
Max Frisch Swiss playwrighter and novelist 1911–1991 73
Max Scheler German philosopher 1874–1928 72
Max Müller German-born British philologist, orientalist and indologist 1823–1900 72
Max von Sydow Swedish-French actor 1929–2020 71
Photo credits (6)

The sharpest rise. Births under this name jumped from 360 in 1911 to 739 in 1912 — 2.1 times over in a single year.

Birth records contain the rise and nothing about its cause. This site does not supply one.

People and dates from Wikidata (CC0), limited to those with an English Wikipedia article who are known by this name as their first name.

Names similar to Max

Matched by sound and spelling inside this dataset, then ordered by total recorded births. This is not a claim about shared etymology.

Same feel, less common

The same matches, limited to names given at most half as often as Max was in 2025.

Related pages

Get this data

Every number on this page is available as JSON: /api/name/max.json. Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0).