Mai
Meaning and origin
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name, a rare spelling variant of Mae/May, or borrowed from Scandinavia, with the same ultimate origin. Chinese surname with several origins: * from Mandarin 麥 /麦 (“wheat”), * from Mandarin and Cantonese 買 /买 (maai⁵, “buy”) * Cantonese form of 米 (see Mi). * Romanized from 马 (mǎ) (see Ma) * Romanized from 梅 (méi) (see Mei) As a German surname, variant of May.
Source: Wiktionary, English entry for Mai (CC BY-SA 4.0). This is the origin of the name in English; families in Sweden may have taken it from another language.
Popularity in Sweden
Among newborns, Mai has been fairly steady over the last few years. Its best year between 1998 and 2022 was 2021. The figures are for this exact spelling; other spellings of the name are counted on their own.
Years with fewer than two babies (fewer than ten before 2004) show as zero in the chart and as – in the table.
Show the figures
| Year | Girls |
|---|---|
| 1998 | – |
| 1999 | – |
| 2000 | – |
| 2001 | – |
| 2002 | – |
| 2003 | – |
| 2004 | 3 |
| 2005 | – |
| 2006 | 3 |
| 2007 | – |
| 2008 | 5 |
| 2009 | 2 |
| 2010 | 4 |
| 2011 | 3 |
| 2012 | 2 |
| 2013 | 2 |
| 2014 | – |
| 2015 | 4 |
| 2016 | 3 |
| 2017 | 2 |
| 2018 | 5 |
| 2019 | 5 |
| 2020 | – |
| 2021 | 10 |
| 2022 | – |
Everyone registered in Sweden on 31 December with this as the first name they use.
Show the figures
| Year | Women and girls | Men and boys |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 386 | – |
| 2000 | 388 | – |
| 2001 | 392 | – |
| 2002 | 392 | – |
| 2003 | 407 | – |
| 2004 | 414 | – |
| 2005 | 417 | – |
| 2006 | 424 | – |
| 2007 | 427 | – |
| 2008 | 431 | – |
| 2009 | 437 | – |
| 2010 | 449 | – |
| 2011 | 446 | – |
| 2012 | 459 | – |
| 2013 | 473 | – |
| 2014 | 481 | – |
| 2015 | 491 | – |
| 2016 | 510 | – |
| 2017 | 526 | – |
| 2018 | 533 | – |
| 2019 | 554 | – |
| 2020 | 563 | 10 |
Mai in a sentence
- Hej! Jag heter Mai.Hi! My name is Mai.
- Har du träffat Mai? Hon började jobba här i måndags.Have you met Mai? She started working here on Monday.
- Mai har bott i Uppsala i tre år.Mai has lived in Uppsala for three years.
- Mais mamma är lärare.Mai's mum is a teacher.
Swedish shows possession with a plain -s and no apostrophe: Mais mamma is Mai's mum.
Related names and other spellings
More names
Questions about Mai
How do you pronounce Mai in Swedish?
Press Listen at the top of the page to hear Mai in your device's Swedish voice.
What does the name Mai mean?
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name, a rare spelling variant of Mae/May, or borrowed from Scandinavia, with the same ultimate origin. Chinese surname with several origins: * from Mandarin 麥 /麦 (“wheat”), * from Mandarin and Cantonese 買 /买 (maai⁵, “buy”) * Cantonese form of 米 (see Mi). * Romanized from 马 (mǎ) (see Ma) * Romanized from 梅 (méi) (see Mei) As a German surname, variant of May.
How popular is Mai in Sweden?
Fewer than two babies of either sex were named Mai in 2022. In 2020, 573 people in Sweden had Mai as the first name they go by. Among newborns the name has been fairly steady lately and peaked in 2021 in the years SCB covers (1998–2022).
Popularity figures: Statistics Sweden (SCB), name statistics (BE0001) from the Statistical Database, released as open data under CC0. Each spelling is counted as its own name, as SCB does. SCB's open name statistics end with babies named in 2022 and the population on 31 December 2020; SCB stopped producing name statistics in 2024 and now points to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for newer figures.
Origins, IPA and recordings: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), via kaikki.org; recordings from Lingua Libre on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA). Lingolib is not affiliated with SCB or Wiktionary. Sources last checked 7 October 2026.