May

See also: may, mAy, máy, maý, mày, mấy, mây, and mãy

English

Alternative forms

  • (female given name): Mae

Etymology

From Middle English May, Mai, from Old French mai, from Latin māius (“Maia's month”), from Maia, a Roman earth goddess, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *magya (“she who is great”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“great”)

Pronunciation

  • enPR: mā, IPA(key): /meɪ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪ

Proper noun

May (plural Mays)

  1. The fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, following April and preceding June.
  2. A female given name, pet name for Mary and Margaret, reinforced by the month and plant meaning.
    • 1856 E. D. E. N. Southworth, The Widow's Son, T. B. Peterson (1867), page 210:
      […] I will not send Owen's Lily May to the almshouse." "Lily―what?" demanded Mrs. Morley rather sharply, for she was half provoked with what she mentally called Amy's whim of keeping the outcast child when she might send it to the asylum. "Lily May," said Amy, smiling. "Her name is Mary, and we called her first Little Mary, and then Little May. But Owen calls her Lily May."
    • 1982 Ruth Rendell, The Fever Tree and Other Stories, Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 119:
      Their parents named them June and May because their birthdays occurred in those months. […] May was like the time of year in which she had been born, changeable, chilly and warm by turns, sullen yet able to know and show loveliness that couldn't last.
    • 2010 Margaret Forster, Isa & May, Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, page 5:
      It's an awkward name: Isamay, pronounced Is-a-may. Isa is my paternal grandmother's name (shortened from Isabel) and May my maternal grandmother's (it comes, somehow, from Margaret). The amalgamation is, as you see, strictly alphabetical. Life, I feel, would have been much easier if they had chosen Maybel.
  3. A surname​.

Usage notes

  • May (or Mae) is often used in conjoined names (e.g., Lillie Mae, Katie Mae, Fannie Mae).

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

See also

Anagrams

Cebuano

Etymology

From English May, from Middle English, from Old English, from Old French mai, from Latin māius (“Maia's month”), from Maia, a Roman earth goddess, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *magya (“she who is great”), from Proto-Indo-European base *meg- (“great”)

Proper noun

May

  1. a female given name
  2. a surname​

Middle French

Noun

May m (plural Mays)

  1. May (month)

Norwegian

Etymology

From English May.

Proper noun

May

  1. A female given name.

Swedish

Etymology

From English May.

Proper noun

May c (genitive Mays)

  1. A female given name.
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