The name Max is a short form of Maximilian and stands for ‘the greatest’. The name comes from the Latin word ‘māximus’, which means ‘the greatest’.
Max is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.
The name Max isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Max ranks 128. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 18 were named Max. In the entire USA, approximately 154,288 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Max. That is 0.05 % of all living Americans.
The name Max is a short form of Maximilian and stands for ‘the greatest’. The name comes from the Latin word ‘māximus’, which means ‘the greatest’.
Did you know... that the name Maximus originally started out as a kind of nickname given to men known for unusual greatness?
Max Greenfield (*1979)
The American actor is best known for co-starring in the successful sitcom 'New Girl' (2011 – 2018) which earned him nominations for the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, and the Critics' Choice Television Awards. Even before that, he appeared in other major productions such as 'Ugly Betty' (2007 – 2008) or 'Gilmore Girls' (2003). Besides, he voiced characters like Roger in the 'Ice Age' franchise and several others in shows such as 'Bob's Burgers.'
Max Scherzer (*1984)
The professional baseball pitcher is primarily known for playing for the New York Jets but he also had been under contract to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Scherzer is an eight-time MLB All-Star.
Max Payne
Former NYPD officer Max Payne is the main character in the eponymous video game series as well as in its film adaptation. In the first part of the game which was released in 2001, he is trying to find those responsible for the murder of his wife and child – and uncovers a major conspiracy.
Max Ernst (1891 – 1976)
The German-American-French painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet fled to the US in 1941, having been persecuted by the Nazis. From 1946 to 1953, he lived in Sedona, Arizona. Together with his wife he helped to establish an American artists' colony in the small community of Sedona. Today, Ernst is considered a leading figure of the Dada movement and european Surrealism.
When you hear the name Max, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Max? Are you also called Max? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
you can find unincorporated communites with the name Max. The three places are located in Indiana, Minnesota and Nebraska.
there had been a town in Dent County, Missouri, which was called Max. It was named for the son of an early postmaster: Max Coffman.
A neighborhood of Egypt's 5-Million-harbor-city Alexandria is called El Max. It is assumed to be the location of the ancient Christian monastic complex of Pempton.
Max is the epitome of persistance. Every single year since first names have been registered in the United States, parents have come up with the idea of naming their son Max. This means that several boys and men named Max have witnessed major events such as the first Nobel Prize ceremony, the moon landing, the release of the first cell phone, or the turn of the millennium. The first name Max has reached its best rank of 97 several times, most recently in 2011. Moreover, the name has been in the top 100 numerous times. This makes Max one of the most popular names of all time.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Max was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
Max will be Max. Like every other year, there were newborns named Max in 2022 – in fact 2,431 to be precise, confirming Max is still a very popular first name. In this most recent year for which US-wide statistics are available, the name ranked #153 among all boys‘ names. Incidentally, the least popular year for Max was 1969, when only 376 baby boys were named Max.
There are only 386 different male names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Max is one of them. However, Max is not equally widespread in all states, but people in Utah seem to particularly fancy this name – the 3,813 men called Max who live here are 0,280% of all male residents and push their name up to #79 in our SmartGenius statistics, easily placing it in the top 100 most common male names in Utah. If you look at all the states in the USA together, you can currently find as many as 154,288 people with the name Max. Across all regions and age groups, this lands Max on position 207 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter M is a particularly popular initial letter for boys’ names – 6.2% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. By the way, the most common first letters for boys’ names are J and A.
With only three letters, the name Max is obviously very short. In fact, only 1.0% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly three letters. Just 0.2% of all first names are even shorter and only have two letters, while nearly 99% of all boys’ and girls’ names use more than three letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
That means that with 6.2% of all boys' names that begin with an M, this first letter is much more common than the other letters on average. If you are now wondering which boys’ name with M is the most common... the answer is Michael.
If your name is Max and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Max, you can simply say:
Mouse
Apple
Xylophone
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Max
Max
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
M
A
X
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
M
A
X
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Max sounds like this:
