Moe
Moe was given to 10 boys in 2025, #8,037 among boys’ names; 795 Americans have been recorded with it since 1888 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Moe by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Moe mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Moe is “a male given name; Diminutive of Moses and Maurice.” Its etymology gives the sense “moé” (もえ).
Also “a female given name from Japanese.”
From Japanese Moe (Moe); もえ (“moé”).
/moʊ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Moe?
#8,037 among boys’ names, 2025
Moe rose from #13,401 in 2015 to #8,037 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 2.6 to 5.9 per million.
49 babies in 1916, the peak
Moe peaked in 1916, when 49 boys were given it, #910 among boys’ names. The 10 births of 2025 are 20% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 10 | #8,037 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 7 | #10,562 | under 0.01 |
| 2023 | 13 | #6,771 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 10 | #8,111 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 7 | #10,239 | under 0.01 |
| 2019 | 9 | #8,649 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 6 | #11,722 | under 0.01 |
| 2015 | 5 | #13,401 | under 0.01 |
| 2014 | 7 | #10,370 | under 0.01 |
| 2013 | 7 | #10,364 | under 0.01 |
Every recorded year (58)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 8 | #9,425 | under 0.01 |
| 2011 | 5 | #13,670 | under 0.01 |
| 2006 | 5 | #13,366 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 5 | #9,680 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 6 | #5,540 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 6 | #5,611 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 6 | #3,923 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 6 | #3,868 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 5 | #4,324 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 6 | #3,669 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 6 | #3,608 | under 0.01 |
| 1932 | 7 | #3,277 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 6 | #3,821 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 7 | #3,597 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 14 | #2,258 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 10 | #2,843 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 12 | #2,544 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 14 | #2,314 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 11 | #2,720 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 19 | #1,862 | 0.02 |
| 1921 | 16 | #2,121 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 27 | #1,449 | 0.03 |
| 1919 | 36 | #1,183 | 0.04 |
| 1918 | 37 | #1,145 | 0.04 |
| 1917 | 30 | #1,254 | 0.03 |
| 1916 | 49 | #910 | 0.06 |
| 1915 | 40 | #1,010 | 0.05 |
| 1914 | 43 | #811 | 0.07 |
| 1913 | 33 | #846 | 0.06 |
| 1912 | 30 | #812 | 0.07 |
| 1911 | 18 | #780 | 0.08 |
| 1910 | 11 | #1,021 | 0.06 |
| 1909 | 13 | #826 | 0.08 |
| 1908 | 12 | #812 | 0.08 |
| 1907 | 8 | #1,068 | 0.05 |
| 1906 | 5 | #1,361 | 0.04 |
| 1905 | 6 | #1,191 | 0.05 |
| 1904 | 14 | #636 | 0.11 |
| 1903 | 6 | #1,090 | 0.05 |
| 1902 | 6 | #1,102 | 0.05 |
| 1899 | 7 | #913 | 0.07 |
| 1897 | 5 | #1,173 | 0.04 |
| 1896 | 8 | #872 | 0.07 |
| 1895 | 7 | #946 | 0.06 |
| 1894 | 5 | #1,188 | 0.04 |
| 1890 | 5 | #1,108 | 0.05 |
| 1889 | 5 | #1,061 | 0.05 |
| 1888 | 6 | #1,005 | 0.05 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Moe a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 795 Americans recorded as Moe, 8% are girls and 92% boys. In 2025 it went to 10 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Moe: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Moe, and how old are they?
An estimated 196 Americans named Moe and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (25% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 7 and 29. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 3,247 people named Moe (884 women and girls, 2,363 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 159 born in the U.S. The Census count is 20.4 times 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.
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 Moe born?
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 370 | not ranked | 6.0× |
Where Moe is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Moe is most over-represented in New York: since 1910 it was given 6.0 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 Moe 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 1,083 babies since 1880, Moe is the most given (73% of them).
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 Moe
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 Moe and names like it
- Compare Moe and MouaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sMoe peaked in 1916.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Moe since 1910.
- Japanese namesWiktionary’s origin for Moe: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1916The year the most babies were named Moe.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Moe alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.