Max

The Latin Maximus was a common Roman cognomen borne by emperors, generals, and saints, including Magnus Maximus, the Western Roman emperor who ruled from 383 to 388 CE, and Saint Maximus the Confessor, the 7th-century Byzantine theologian.

The name Maximilian was coined by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III in 1459 by combining the names of 2 Roman generals, Quintus Fabius Maximus and Scipio Aemilianus, for his son the future Emperor Maximilian I.

The name became dynastic in the Habsburg line.

Cultural and scientific bearers of the short form include the physicist Max Planck (1858-1947), founder of quantum theory and Nobel laureate of 1918; the sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920), author of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism;

the painter Max Ernst, a leading figure of Dada and Surrealism; and the children’s book character Max, hero of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963), one of the most beloved picture books of the 20th century.

Max entered the SSA top 1000 for boys in the late 19th century with German immigration and reached its first US peak in the 1910s before declining mid-century.

It returned to favor sharply after 1985, breaking the top 100 in 1995 and remaining there ever since.

By the 2020s, Max sat in the top 150, used widely across all American demographic groups and reinforced by the Mad Max film franchise, the cartoon dog Max from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and tennis player Max Mirnyi.