May takes its name from the "month of May", which the Romans named for Maia, their goddess of spring growth, and in England it is also the word for the "hawthorn blossom" that flowers in that month. It served as a Victorian pet form of Mary and Margaret and was a top 100 name in the United States until the 1920s. After decades in the shadows, May has crept up from number 1,917 in 2000 to number 1,233 in 2025, its best rank in this century.