Maisy
A English diminutive form of the name Mary, meaning "beloved" or "wished-for child."
Name Census estimates that about 3,807 living Americans carry the first name Maisy. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maisy today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maisy births was 2023 (356 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maisy. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Maisy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Maisy is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.8K
~ 1 in 90,033 Americans
Peak year
2023
356 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#801
Tracked since 1991
Census
Maisy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,448 people with the first name Maisy, which placed it at #6,531 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#6,531
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,448 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maisy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maisy is White at 81.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.2%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Maisy described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Maisy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.1% · 1,986
- Hispanic or Latino8.2% · 201
- Two or more races6.0% · 147
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 70
- Black or African American1.3% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 11
Popularity
Maisy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maisy from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,600 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maisy by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Maisy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maisys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Maisy, while West Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 61 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maisy
The name Maisy is an English diminutive form of the name Mary. It originated as a pet name derived from the medieval vernacular form of Mary, which was Marye or Marye. The name Mary itself is derived from the ancient Hebrew name Miryam, which has roots in the Hebrew words for "bitter" or "beloved".
The name Maisy first appeared in written records in the late 19th century, though it was likely used informally before then. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Maisy Bateman, an English actress born in 1900. Another early example is Maisy Renwick, a Scottish actress born in 1905.
In the early 20th century, the name gained popularity due to the beloved children's book series featuring the character Maisy Mouse, written and illustrated by Lucy Cousins. The first Maisy book was published in 1990, introducing the lovable mouse to generations of young readers.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Maisy was Maisy Grindley, a pioneering Jamaican dancer and choreographer who helped popularize Caribbean dance forms in the mid-20th century. She was born in 1917 and passed away in 2009.
Another notable Maisy was Maisy Lavan, an American actress and singer who appeared in several Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s. She was born in 1922 and died in 2007.
In the world of sports, Maisy Hitchins was a British tennis player who competed in the early 1900s. She participated in the Wimbledon Championships from 1906 to 1914 and was born in 1888.
While the name Maisy has never been incredibly common, it has maintained a charming and whimsical appeal due to its literary associations and its diminutive, affectionate sound.
People
Maisy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maisy as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Maisy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maisy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,807 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maisy going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 90,033 US residents.
Is Maisy a common name?
We classify Maisy as "Rare". It ranks above 95.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,841 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maisy most popular?
The single biggest year for Maisy was 2023, when 356 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maisy is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maisy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,448 people with the name Maisy, or 0.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,531 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Maisy in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Maisy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maisy appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,453 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Maisy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maisy is White at 81.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.2%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Maisy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maisy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.1% (1,986 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Maisy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maisy a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maisy in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Maisy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maisy in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Maisy can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Maisy?
You can see how many Americans are named Maisy on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.