My little girl is a year old now, and I thought it might be worthwhile to post some of the things I’ve learned or realized about the name [name_f]May[/name_f] in the last year, for anyone who’s considering it for their child.
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[name_f]May[/name_f] is really hard to search for. Like this post will probably not show up in any special way under “[name_f]May[/name_f] in the Forums” because all of the other posts that include the word may as a verb. It won’t even let me use [name_f]May[/name_f] as a tag, because it’s an overly common word. You’re pretty much stuck following [name_f]Mae[/name_f] instead, which I feel like appeals to a different set of people. (To me, [name_f]May[/name_f] is more timeless, and [name_f]Mae[/name_f] is more vintage). I think this could be an advantage in the modern age though…it’ll be harder for random people to google her.
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I really expected to need to add an extra syllable to [name_f]May[/name_f] for a cutesy nickname, and spent a lot of time before she was born worrying about whether I liked Maybee or Maycee or Mayzee. I have never once called my daughter any of these things. I have a friend who calls her Maybers.
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We do call her a completely unrelated nickname. In the first few months, we used it almost exclusively, and I worried sometimes that we weren’t using her name and that maybe it hadn’t “stuck” somehow. But at a year we use her name all the time, and it feels completely natural.
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The fact that [name_f]May[/name_f] rhymes with so many words is really convenient for improvisational lullabies
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The fact that it’s so short and easy to say means that she’ll be able to say her own name pretty soon…which I’m pretty excited about. She can actually already say her name, but we’re not sure if she means anything specific by it.
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[name_f]May[/name_f] is occasionally misheard as [name_f]Meg[/name_f].
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More people have asked or joked about [name_f]May[/name_f] born in [name_u]August[/name_u] than I expected.
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I use the word might more often now, because [name_f]May[/name_f] may need a nap just sounds silly.
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[name_f]May[/name_f] can be “short” for A-may-zing or Mayhem. Also, Oh may oh my.
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When I was pregnant, the only real long form for [name_f]May[/name_f] on my radar was [name_f]Margaret[/name_f], which I decided wasn’t really my style. It turns out a lot of historical Mays and Maes were actually named [name_f]Mary[/name_f] though. I still probably would have picked [name_f]May[/name_f] as a stand alone name, but I like [name_f]May[/name_f] short for [name_f]Mary[/name_f] a lot…especially if you have a [name_f]Mary[/name_f] in your family that you want to honor.
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[name_f]May[/name_f] isn’t common at all these days, but simple M names are. I had a lot of them on my girl list ([name_f]Metta[/name_f], [name_f]Minna[/name_f]) that I still love, but the next girl (if there is one) will definitely be venturing out to different parts of the alphabet
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I love the simplicity of three letters now more than ever though. If my husband wasn’t involved, I’d probably have to fight the urge to give all of our children overly matchy super short names. It’s so much fun to write on everything, and she is going to feel like a genius on the first day of kindergarten.
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I still don’t know if my father-in-law really cares that we used his grandmother’s middle name to honor his side of the family. So good thing it’s a name I like independent of the family connection…although I do enjoy being able to tell people it’s a family name, and I’ll probably enjoy having that be part of the story I tell her too.
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My husband never loved our boy name ([name_u]Roy[/name_u]), which would probably be overly matchy with [name_f]May[/name_f] if we have a son in the future anyways. I’ve come to terms with letting it be her “If I had been a boy” name, and now feel a little happy that she has one that won’t just be her baby brother’s name.
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I hated when other girls had “my” name growing up, especially if it was my name but spelled differently, but I don’t feel the same way with my daughter. It probably helps that [name_f]May[/name_f] is much more uncommon, and maybe also that none of the different spellings are really competing to be the “right” one. [name_f]Mae[/name_f] is completely legitimate, and so is [name_f]Mai[/name_f] and [name_f]Mei[/name_f]. I worry a little bit that [name_f]Mae[/name_f] is gaining in popularity so much faster than [name_f]May[/name_f]…but the fact that I can watch either version of the name gain in popularity and not be stressed out about it is a major accomplishment for me. It’s honestly such a great name that more Mays in the world can only add to it.
I also prefer “[name_f]May[/name_f]” with the full name of [name_f]Mary[/name_f].