Mayar
A feminine Arabic name meaning "brilliance" or "radiance".
Name Census estimates that about 913 living Americans carry the first name Mayar. It is a predominantly female name (95.9% of registrations). The average person named Mayar today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mayar births was 2015 (79 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mayar. 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 Mayar with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
913
~ 1 in 375,415 Americans
Peak year
2015
79 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2021 SSA rank
#2,489
Tracked since 2003
Census
Mayar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 740 people with the first name Mayar, which placed it at #15,509 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
#15,509
National first-name rank
People counted
740
740 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mayar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mayar is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Black (8.0%) and Two or More Races (5.0%). 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 Mayar 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 Mayar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.4% · 602
- Black or African American8.0% · 59
- Two or more races5.0% · 37
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Mayar
Mayar leans heavily female at 95.9% of total registrations, but 38 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mayar as a male name
- Ranked #13,396 in 2021
- 5 male births in 2021
- Peak: 2017 (13 births)
Mayar as a female name
- Ranked #2,489 in 2024
- 72 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (74 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mayar leans strongly female. 676 people counted with this name were female (91.1%), compared with 66 male bearers (8.9%).
Popularity
Mayar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mayar from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 563 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mayar remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mayar 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 Mayar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mayars live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. New York, Michigan, California recorded the most babies named Mayar, while Pennsylvania, Kansas, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 40 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mayar
The name Mayar is an ancient one, with roots tracing back to the ancient Sumerian civilization of Mesopotamia, which flourished between the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE. The name is derived from the Sumerian word "mayaru," which translates to "brilliant" or "shining." It was likely used as a descriptive term for those blessed with radiant beauty or intelligence.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mayar comes from cuneiform inscriptions found in the ruins of the ancient city of Ur, located in modern-day Iraq. These inscriptions, dating back to around 2600 BCE, mention a high priestess named Mayar who served in the temple of the moon god Nanna.
In ancient Egyptian mythology, there is a reference to a goddess named Mayar, who was associated with the concept of truth and justice. She was often depicted holding a feather, which symbolized her role in weighing the hearts of the deceased during the judgment process in the afterlife.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Mayar. One of the earliest was Mayar of Kush, a Nubian queen who ruled over the ancient kingdom of Kush (located in present-day Sudan) around 760 BCE. She is renowned for her military campaigns and for expanding the boundaries of her kingdom.
Another famous Mayar was a Persian scholar and mathematician who lived in the 9th century CE. Known as Mayar al-Khwarizmi, he made significant contributions to the field of algebra and is credited with introducing Arabic numerals to the Western world.
In the realm of literature, the name Mayar was borne by Mayar al-Nuwayri, an Egyptian historian and scholar who lived in the 13th century CE. He is best known for his encyclopedic work, "Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab," which covered a wide range of topics, including history, geography, and literature.
During the medieval period, there was a prominent figure named Mayar al-Din al-Tusi, a Persian astronomer, and mathematician who lived in the 13th century CE. He made important contributions to the study of trigonometry and worked on improving astronomical models and instruments.
In more recent times, one of the most notable individuals with the name Mayar was Mayar Ahmed, an Egyptian feminist and writer who lived from 1889 to 1952. She was a pioneering figure in the Egyptian feminist movement and fought for women's rights and education through her writings and activism.
People
Mayar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mayar 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
Mayar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mayar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 913 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mayar 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 375,415 US residents.
Is Mayar a common name?
We classify Mayar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 920 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mayar most popular?
The single biggest year for Mayar was 2015, when 79 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mayar is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mayar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 740 people with the name Mayar, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,509 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 Mayar 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 Mayar?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mayar leans strongly female. 676 people counted with this name were female (91.1%), compared with 66 male bearers (8.9%). 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 Mayar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mayar is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Black (8.0%) and Two or More Races (5.0%). 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 Mayar most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mayar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.4% (602 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 Mayar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mayar a female name?
Yes, 95.9% of people registered as Mayar 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 Mayar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mayar 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 Mayar 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 named Mayar?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.