Mael
Mael was given to 195 boys in 2025, #1,104 among boys’ names; 1,353 Americans have been recorded with it since 2002 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,340 Americans named Mael and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 4 years old and half are between 2 and 7.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Mael by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Mael mean?
Wiktionary, Tagalog section
Mael is “a diminutive of the male given name Ismael”
Final clipping of Ismael.
/maˈʔel/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Tagalog section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Mael?
#1,104 among boys’ names, 2025
Mael rose from #3,408 in 2015 to #1,104 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.02 to 0.11 per 1,000.
226 babies in 2023, the peak
Mael peaked in 2023, when 226 boys were given it, #972 among boys’ names. The 195 births of 2025 are 86% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 195 | #1,104 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 208 | #1,056 | 0.12 |
| 2023 | 226 | #972 | 0.13 |
| 2022 | 164 | #1,212 | 0.09 |
| 2021 | 117 | #1,520 | 0.07 |
| 2020 | 71 | #2,011 | 0.04 |
| 2019 | 55 | #2,451 | 0.03 |
| 2018 | 45 | #2,731 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 49 | #2,584 | 0.03 |
| 2016 | 35 | #3,268 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (24)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 33 | #3,408 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 20 | #4,797 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 25 | #4,020 | 0.01 |
| 2012 | 25 | #4,085 | 0.01 |
| 2011 | 7 | #10,333 | under 0.01 |
| 2010 | 14 | #6,247 | 0.01 |
| 2009 | 9 | #8,739 | under 0.01 |
| 2008 | 14 | #6,279 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 9 | #8,645 | under 0.01 |
| 2006 | 7 | #10,231 | under 0.01 |
| 2005 | 5 | #12,606 | under 0.01 |
| 2004 | 9 | #7,939 | under 0.01 |
| 2003 | 6 | #10,374 | under 0.01 |
| 2002 | 5 | #11,789 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Mael a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Mael has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 24 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Mael: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Mael, and how old are they?
1,340 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,353 Americans ever recorded as Mael. The median Mael alive today is 4 years old; half are between 2 and 7.
The 2020 Census counted 460 people named Mael (42 women and girls, 418 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 387 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 109 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,240 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Mael born?
The states with the most babies named Mael are California, Texas and New York, with 52% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 28 | #855 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 25 | #967 | 1.3× |
| New York | 21 | #705 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 20 | #769 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 12 | #732 | 0.5× |
| Arizona | 10 | #660 | 0.8× |
| Massachusetts | 10 | #494 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 7 | #1,178 | 0.7× |
| Maryland | 5 | #878 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 5 | #1,405 | 0.1× |
Where Mael is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Mael is most over-represented in Texas: since 2002 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Mael with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 1,753 babies since 1880, Mael is the most given (77% of them). In 2025 it was given to 195 of their 209 babies (93%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Mael
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Mael and names like it
- Compare Mael and MalBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sMael peaked in 2023.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Mael since 1910.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Mael.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Mael alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.