boy's name
Maëlan
ma-ay-LAHN
- Origin Breton
- Gender Boy
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 1000 (France)
- Births on record 3,376
France
#195
2025 births
Maëlan is a boy's name from Brittany, a diminutive of Maël, which comes from a Breton word for a prince or chief. It ranks 195th in France on 310 births and is at its all-time peak in our records.
- Maëlan is a name of Breton origin.
- Peaked in France in 2025, when 310 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade in France.
- Today about 1 in 2,144 babies in France is given this name.
- First appears in birth records in 1982.
Maëlan over time
Births per decade in France, 1980s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1980s | 15 |
| 1990s | 115 |
| 2000s | 540 |
| 2010s | 1,325 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 1,355 |
What Maëlan means
Maëlan means little prince or little chief. It is Maël with the Breton diminutive ending -an, so the sense is a smaller or younger version of the name it is built from.
Where Maëlan comes from
Maëlan is built on Maël, from the Old Breton mael, a chief or prince, which is cognate with the Welsh mael and appears across early Brittonic naming. Saint Maël was a fifth-century Breton hermit, and the name survived in Brittany through the centuries when Breton naming was actively discouraged in French civil registration. Maëlan adds the diminutive -an, a productive Breton ending that also gives Erwan and Gwenan. The diaeresis on the e is doing real work: it separates the a and the e so the name is said in two syllables rather than as the French vowel ae, and dropping it changes the pronunciation rather than merely the styling.
Maëlan in use
Maëlan ranks 195th in France on 310 births and peaked in France in 2025, when 310 babies were registered — the most in any year since our records begin for it in 1982, which means it has never been more common than it is at the latest count. Outside France it barely registers: 6 births place it 11802nd in the United States, and it does not chart in Britain or Ireland at all. Of 3,364 lifetime births in our data, all but a handful are French.
How popular is Maëlan?
In 2025, Maëlan was given to 275 babies in France, ranking #195 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Maëlan is used
French counts are rounded to the nearest five and nothing below five is published, so these figures show the shape of the name's use rather than an exact tally. Data & sources.
How Maëlan is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Maelan | Maelan is Maëlan without the diaeresis, and the spelling recorded in France, where it ranks #1,710. | 1,071 |
| Maélan | Maélan is Maëlan written with an acute accent, used in France, where it ranks #1,932. | 140 |
Names that peaked alongside Maëlan
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Maëlan also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Maëlan over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Maëlan
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Maëlan in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Maëlan
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Maëlan — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Maëlan
What does the name Maëlan mean?
Little prince or little chief — Maël plus the Breton diminutive ending -an.
Is Maëlan a French name?
It is Breton, from Brittany in northwestern France, and it is used almost entirely in France.
Why does Maëlan have two dots over the e?
The diaeresis splits the vowels so the name has two syllables. Without it the ae would be read as a single French vowel.
How popular is Maëlan?
195th in France on 310 births, and at its highest recorded level.
Is Maëlan a girl's or a boy's name?
Maëlan is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
What are the nicknames for Maëlan?
Maëlan is usually shortened to Mae.
Is Maëlan a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Maëlan currently ranks #195 in France. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.