Given name & surname
Ma
Ma is a surname from Chinese. It is used in English, Tagalog, and Indonesian.
Meaning & origin
Where it comes from
In English use, Ma is a variant of May. An origin associated with May is Latin.
Explained through its name family
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1924. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Ma through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 631
- 0 boys · 631 girls
- Most popular year
- 1990
- 31 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for girls is 7 in 2018. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for girls was 31 in 1990. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 16,450 as a first name in 2020; 38,387 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Ma’s family of names
In Burmese usage, Ma is a Roman-alphabet rendering of မာ. In English usage, Ma has a related form in May. In English usage, Ma as a surname has a conventional equivalent in the Vietnamese form Mã.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Ma has relatives in 7 languages.
8 related names in 7 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 2
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 6
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Ma
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Ma, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Mai
“wheat”
>99% girls
Misha
“who is like God?”
20% boys · 80% girls
Maira
“star of the sea” · “from the sea of bitterness”
>99% girls
Mayra
“star of the sea” · “from the sea of bitterness”
>99% girls
Mariela
Mariela is a feminine given name from Spanish. It is used in English and Spanish.
>99% girls
Malika
“destined to be queen”
>99% girls
Marissa
“woman of the sea”
>99% girls
Mallorie
“an unlucky young woman; ill-fated” · “an unlucky young man; ill-fated”
>99% girls