Mayford
Potentially a combination of "May" and "ford", perhaps alluding to a ford or crossing point in a river during the month of May.
Name Census estimates that about 37 living Americans carry the first name Mayford. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mayford today is around 85 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mayford births was 1921 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mayford. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Mayford is about 85 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Mayfords were born before 1951.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Mayford. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
37
~ 1 in 9,263,631 Americans
Peak year
1921
14 babies that year
Average age
85
years old
1958 SSA rank
#3,472
Tracked since 1914
Census
Mayford in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 105 people with the first name Mayford, which placed it at #52,717 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
#52,717
National first-name rank
People counted
105
105 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
91.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mayford
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mayford is White at 91.4%. The next largest groups are Black (4.8%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (1.9%). 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 Mayford 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 Mayford at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White91.4% · 96
- Black or African American4.8% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 2
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 1
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 1
Popularity
Mayford: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mayford from the 1910s through to the 1950s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 94 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mayford 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 Mayford during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mayfords live
Origin
Meaning and history of Mayford
The given name Mayford is believed to have originated in England during the medieval period. It is thought to be derived from a combination of the Old English words "mæg" meaning "kinsman" and "ford" meaning "a shallow place for crossing a river." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone who lived near a river crossing frequently used by their kin or clan.
The earliest known record of the name appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is listed as a place name for a settlement in Staffordshire. This lends credence to the idea that Mayford was initially a locational surname before later being adopted as a given name.
One of the first notable individuals to bear the name Mayford was Sir Mayford de Stafford, a knight who fought alongside King Edward I in the Ninth Crusade to the Holy Land in 1271-1272. He is mentioned in several contemporary chronicles of the crusade.
In the 15th century, there is record of a Mayford Boleyn, who was a distant relation of the ill-fated Queen Anne Boleyn. He served as a courtier in the household of King Henry VIII.
During the English Civil War in the 17th century, a Colonel Mayford Fairfax fought for the Parliamentarian forces under the command of his cousin, Sir Thomas Fairfax. He is noted for his bravery at the Battle of Naseby in 1645.
Another notable bearer of the name was Mayford Gunn, a Scottish explorer and fur trader who travelled extensively in the Canadian Arctic in the early 19th century. He is credited with mapping several previously uncharted islands and inlets.
In the realm of literature, there was a Mayford Hastings, an English poet and playwright active in the late 18th century. Though not widely remembered today, he was well-regarded in his time for his romantic verse and comedic stage plays.
People
Mayford + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mayford 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
Mayford: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mayford?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 37 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mayford 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 9,263,631 US residents.
Is Mayford a common name?
We classify Mayford as "Very Rare". It ranks above 49.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 230 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mayford most popular?
The single biggest year for Mayford was 1921, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mayford is about 85 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mayford in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 105 people with the name Mayford, or 0.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #52,717 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 Mayford 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 Mayford?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mayford leans strongly male. 97 people counted with this name were male (89.0%), compared with 12 female bearers (11.0%). 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 Mayford?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mayford is White at 91.4%. The next largest groups are Black (4.8%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (1.9%). 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 Mayford most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mayford in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.4% (96 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 Mayford in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mayford a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mayford in the SSA data are male. 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 Mayford still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mayford 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 Mayford 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 have Mayford as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.