Boy Names That Start With M
Boys' names beginning with M, ranked by how many babies actually got them — not by editorial preference — plus which ones are climbing and how the letter itself has moved.
- Share of boys, 2025
- 7.4%
- vs 7.1% in 2000
- Names in use
- 915
- 2,979 recorded since 1880
- Letter peaked
- 1968
- at 10.0% of names
- Rank among 26 letters
- #4
- by 2025 share
How M has fared since 1880
Share of all listed U.S. births given a name starting with M, year by year. Plotted as a share rather than a count — raw counts track how many babies were born, so every letter would appear to peak in 1957.
| Save name | Name & meaning | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8,094#21 | Down 9 rank positions in five years | 1957 | |||
| 7,003#32 | Down 2 rank positions in five years | 1983 | |||
| 1,416#245 | Down 10 rank positions in five years | 1960 | |||
| 6,291#39 | Down 28 rank positions in five years | 2011 | |||
| 1,009#335 | Down 42 rank positions in five years | 1963 | |||
| 1,341#258 | Down 32 rank positions in five years | 1984 | |||
| 860#371 | Down 48 rank positions in five years | 2005 | |||
| 1,661#212 | Down 23 rank positions in five years | 2007 | |||
| 2,025#180 | Down 33 rank positions in five years | 2009 | |||
| 721#438 | Down 109 rank positions in five years | 1980 | |||
| 11,045#8 | Up 12 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 6,072#44 | Up 15 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 3,817#90 | Up 16 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 1,924#189 | Down 43 rank positions in five years | 2014 | |||
| 977#340 | Up 27 rank positions in five years | 1947 | |||
| 862#370 | Up 23 rank positions in five years | 2005 | |||
| 5,894#49 | Up 1 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 1,257#272 | Up 19 rank positions in five years | 1992 | |||
| 2,692#134 | Up 22 rank positions in five years | 2006 | |||
| 3,511#100 | Up 24 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 579#517 | Down 37 rank positions in five years | 2001 | |||
| 724#437 | Down 64 rank positions in five years | 1996 | |||
| 1,664#210 | Down 40 rank positions in five years | 2017 | |||
| 532#559 | Up 136 rank positions in five years | 1995 | |||
| 2,974#119 | Up 15 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 583#515 | Down 21 rank positions in five years | 2016 | |||
| 668#463 | Up 42 rank positions in five years | 1942 | |||
| 1,249#276 | Down 25 rank positions in five years | 2014 | |||
| 2,455#146 | Up 27 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 502#587 | Down 79 rank positions in five years | 2001 | |||
| 1,666#207 | Down 17 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 2,140#170 | Up 46 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 413#664 | Down 32 rank positions in five years | 2008 | |||
| 1,209#280 | Down 15 rank positions in five years | 2019 | |||
| 1,473#239 | Up 71 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 568#527 | Up 29 rank positions in five years | 2014 | |||
| 497#590 | Down 97 rank positions in five years | 2016 | |||
| 1,418#242 | Up 189 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 728#436 | Up 82 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 1,657#213 | Up 72 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 529#562 | Up 102 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 486#595 | Up 48 rank positions in five years | 2014 | |||
| 1,087#312 | Up 117 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 854#372 | Up 54 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 798#399 | Up 243 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 864#369 | Up 330 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 437#640 | Down 185 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 626#481 | Up 69 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 506#580 | Up 174 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 651#470 | Up 274 rank positions in five years | 2025 |
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M names climbing fastest
Biggest M names of all time
By total applications since 1880 — a different list from the one above, because it counts every generation, not just this one.
Every other letter
Sources & methodology
Rankings and counts come from official birth card-application data, 1880–2025. Counts are card applications rather than births, and any name given to fewer than 5 babies of one sex in a year is not published — so “—” means genuinely uncommon, never invalid. The “climbing fastest” row ranks by five-year rank movement as a ratio, and a name must be inside the top 1,000 with at least 200 applications in 2025 to qualify — a looser gate than the site-wide trending list uses, because inside a single letter the stricter one leaves some letters empty. Letter shares are measured over listed names only, and the 25-year comparison is a generation rather than five years because letter fashion moves far more slowly than any one name.