Mao — girls' name

What the Data Says About Mao

The Social Security Administration has registered 285 babies named Mao between 1980 and 2016, spanning 37 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Mao currently falls outside the top 1,000 girls' names for 2016. The name reached its historical peak in 1983, when 17 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Mao performed strongest in the 1980s, accumulating 121 births during that ten-year window. Across the 4 decades of recorded activity, Mao shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in California, which accounts for 78 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Minnesota. In total, SSA state-level files list Mao in 2 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Mao in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 285 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.