Maeve, Maev or Maiv (/meɪv/mayv) is a female given
name of Irish origin. It comes from the
Irish name Méabh, which was spelt Meadhbh in Early Modern Irish (pronounced[mʲɛɣv]),[2]Meḋḃ or Meaḋḃ in
Middle Irish, and Medb in Old Irish (pronounced[mʲeðv]). It may derive from a word meaning "she who intoxicates", "mead-woman", or alternatively "she who rules".[3]Medb is a queen in
Irish mythology who is thought to have originally been a
sovereignty goddess.[4]
Usage
Maeve (in that spelling) was a Top 100 girls' name in
Ireland for all but 12 of the 46 years between 1964 and 2009, and Meabh ranked 99th on the list of the most popular Irish girls' names of 2020. In
Northern Ireland, Maeve was a Top 100 girls' name between 1997 and 2004, and Meabh ranked 44th in 2017. It ranked 218th on the list of most popular names for girls in
England and
Wales in 2020 and had risen in popularity to 94th position in 2020 in those countries. It has ranked among the top 100 names for girls since 2020 in
Scotland, where it was the 72nd most popular name in 2021. It has also increased in usage in the
Netherlands, where it was among the top 500 names for girls in 2014 and again between 2017 and 2021. It was the 44th most common name for newborn Dutch girls in 2021.[5][6] Maeve has ranked among the 1,000 most popular names for girls born in the
United States since 1997, among the top 500 names since 2013, and among the top 150 names since 2021.[7]
People with the given name
Medb, Queen of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology
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given name or the same
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