Mei is a Chinese and Japanese name; in Chinese the most common character means "beautiful" and another means "plum blossom", while in Japanese Mei is written with characters for "sprout" or "life". Many Americans know the name from the little sister in the animated film My Neighbor Totoro. Mei has been slowly climbing in the United States and reaches number 1744 among girls' names in 2025, its highest rank so far.