Beth writes:
As I was driving to my daughter’s class today, a sign I drive by often caught my attention as a name to consider. Maxon. I’ve never heard of a baby named this, but it sounds like so many popular names–Max! Jackson! Mason! that I wondered if someone who didn’t have this name in their family tree would consider it. What do you think?
Oh, interesting! It adds another way to get the nickname Max, and it ties in with the name Jaxon. Or it could be spelled Mackson, if someone preferred the nickname Mac/Mack.
I see in 2010 there were 55 baby boys named Maxon, plus another 14 named Maxen, 9 named Maxxon, and 7 named Maxin. It looks like it appeared in the Social Security database in 1997, but hasn’t really caught on yet.
I wonder why it HASN’T risen more rapidly, considering it fits so well with Max and Jaxon and Jackson? The similarity in sound to the men’s magazine Maxim might help it or might hurt it (312 boys named Maxim were born in 2010). Associations with maxi pads seem like they’d be damaging, but then they should be equally damaging to all the Max names. It makes me think of “Wax on, wax off” from The Karate Kid—but that ought to be just as damaging to Jaxon and Jackson. I wondered if it might be a reluctance to branch out into rhyming names, but that didn’t stop Caden/Braden/Jaden/Greydon.
Let’s have a poll over to the right to see what we think of the name [poll closed; see results below], but let’s also discuss in the comments section why we think it HASN’T taken off.
Poll results for “What do you think of the name Maxon?” (491 votes total):
I love it! I’d want to use it! – 5 votes (1%)
I like it! I’d want to consider it! – 26 votes (5%)
I like it for someone else’s baby – 72 votes (15%)
No particular opinion – 41 votes (8%)
Slight dislike – 193 votes (39%)
Strong dislike – 154 votes (31%)
I feel an immediate sort of “mild dislike” for Maxon and I have no idea why!
I started to think maybe it hasn’t caught on because a) It doesn’t have the level of surname familiarity that Jackson does and b) it seems so close to “maxim” as to be an error. But I can’t really see those tiny issues preventing it from being a name!
I suspect I am just resistant to change and if I were to meet a little Maxon in person I would find it to be a perfectly adorable name.
Not my style at all. I don’t like trendy sounding names but rather names with a long history. I had never heard of this name so maybe others havent… maybe it will be the next big one- if people want something less popular than Mason but still with the n ending and the popular X!
Oh! I finally realized what this name reminds me of: the Baksun from the Winnie the Pooh movie. That must be why the name seems like an error/misspelling/something a small child made up to me.
My S-I-L originally came up with Maxon for a name for my nephew. She asked my brother what he thought and he misheard it as Maxton and that’s what they ended up naming him.
They really liked the nickname Max, but felt like it wasn’t enough on its own, and didn’t like the established options like Maximilian or Maxwell. It didn’t have anything to do with rhyming with Jaxon.
All I can think is: Max on, Max off. I thought that as soon as I saw it but before I read that Swistle had the same association. I’ve never thought that with Jax(s)on et al, so it might be because an M is a flipped W? Maybe I’m just not into new rhyme names, from the -den group to the -son group, but I’m don’t care much for it. I imagine some parents will find the name to be a fresh take on the Max or Jackson/Jax(s)on trend, though! Could anyone see it as Maxson or Mackson? Those just seem too silly to me, but who knows!
Also, it sounds rather verb-like to me. Like you’re maxin’ out your credit card. Names like Jackson avoid sounding like jackin’ due to the added “S”, but Max already has an S sound.
The more I say it, though, the more name-like it sounds, so all the little things that bother me about it might go away if I met a child with the name.
‘Correct’ spellings of the name are Macsen and Maxen. *According to behindthename.com
Personally it’s my favourite ‘Max’ name, but I would probably just use Max by itself.
It makes me think of a maxi pad… :-/
I wouldn’t be shocked to meet a kid named Maxon, but it would still sound made up to me.
It brings Fresh Prince of Bel Aire to mind:
“Chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool…”
It SOUNDS slang, ‘hood slang. The name Jaxon sounds like Jackson, a historically-grounded name (i.e. Stonewall Jackson from the Civil War). Forgive the stereotype (because I realize I’m making several in this post that I personally break), but it seems illiterate instead of inspired, uneducated instead of unusual.
*sigh* I’m going to be one of those awful mothers who asks their children, “Why can’t you just name the baby something NORMAL like we named you?”
A “newer” name that this reminds me of is Macon (rhymes with bacon) which seems somehow southern… perhaps because it’s similar to Deacon? I don’t know.
I slightly dislike it for the poll. It does remind me of feminine hygene products, and there seem to be plenty of ‘Max’ alternatives currently out there (Maxwell, Maximilian, Maximo, Maxfield, etc.).
“Macon” probably seems southern because of Macon, GA. (Delicious fresh peach ice cream if you ever go.)
Here in Portland there is a private school named Tucker Maxon. It’s named after the founders of the school, so it’s a surname although I can’t say I’ve ever heard of it outside of the school.
It just feels more like a brand/company name to me than a person name. Also, I think the name pool is already so saturated with viable routes to Max that people don’t need to go looking for new ones.
Now if you wanted to pitch a reasonable alternate route to Gus (that starts with Gus, rather than ending with it, preferably), I’d be all ears! Every time we watch the show Psych, I ponder whether Guster could reasonably be used as a first name. Maybe that’s another one for consideration here? :)
A friend of mine has the last name of Maxson, so you could spell it that way. I don’t really dislike the name, but it doesn’t quite work for me.
It looks like a misspelling of Mason to me.
Maxon certainly seems name-like to me. But I can’t say I personally like it.
Maybe most people who like Max, prefer one of the many established alternatives, including using Max as a given-name.
I think the maxi pad association may be why Maxine hasn’t taken off for girls, while all the male names in the Max family have.
We considered naming our daughter Max had she been a boy, and my MIL knew this. Once we found out we were having a girl, she suggested Maxine, and my husband said, “Absolutely not. I don’t want people calling her Maxi pad.”
“312 boys named Maxim were born in 2010.”
Maxim is a traditional Russian name, a form of Maximilian. It’s pronounced “mahk-SEEM”. I know an 8-year-old Maxim, the son of Russian immigrant parents. My grandson pronounces his friend’s name as max-SEEM.
I’m guessing that Maxon would be pronounced like Jaxon, with the accent on the first syllable. I can’t decide which of those two names I like least.
However, I do like Maxton, mentioned above, because it’s an old surname and not a recently made up name:
Maxton
The meaning of the name Maxton is From Maccus’ Town
The origin of the name Maxton is English
Notes: Originally an English Surname
Example of the name as a surname:
“James Maxton (1885–1946) was a Scottish socialist politician, and leader of the Independent Labour Party. A prominent proponent of Home Rule for Scotland …”
Patricia- It’s impossible to know from the data how the parents who used Maxim are pronouncing it. The Baby Name Wizard lists it with one pronunciation: MAX-im. Other sites list it with the pronunciation you mention and also the MAX-im pronunciation. I wish the Social Security data would include pronunciation; it would make many issues so much simpler!
I’m really taken with Maxton, which I’d never come across until this discussion. To be more precise, Maxton is a *Scottish* surname: “Clan Maxton is a Scottish clan. The clan does not have [no longer has] a chief … therefore the clan has no standing under Scots Law… The surname Maxton is considered to be a habitational name from the lands and barony of Maxton in Roxburghshire, on the Scottish Borders. The name roughly means “settlement (tun) of Maccus”.” (Wikipedia)
Ancestry.com gives similar background for the surname Maxton:
“Maxton Name Meaning
Scottish: habitational name from a place so called in Roxburghshire (Borders), named as the ‘settlement (tun) of Maccus’. There is also a place of this name in Kent, England, but it does not seem to have given rise to a surname.”
According to SSA records, in 2005 just 46 boys were given the name Maxton. Five years later, in 2010, 193 boys were named Maxton, making Maxton just one short of making the 2010 top 1000 list. (Number 1000 Crew also was given to 193 boys, but came in ahead of Maxton alphabetically.)
I can see Maxton catching on as a more ‘solid’ Max option than Maxon. Maxton fits in with other currently popular surname names ending in -ton:
Colton – #73
Ashton – 126
Preston – 131
Easton – 145
Peyton – 149
Braxton – 171
Trenton – 212
Kingston – 214
Weston – 224
All in the top 250, and the list of -ton names goes on: Clayton, Dalton, Paxton, Keaton, Quinton, Remington, Boston, Dayton, Layton, Houston, Winston, Leighton, Clinton. [I hadn’t realized there are so many of these names in the boys top 1000!]
I’m guessing that with its connection to the popular Max (#98), the recently discovered Maxton will be climbing up the chart and maybe eventually challenge Maxwell (#134) as the most popular longer form for Max.
Just read on babynamewizard.com’s “namecandy” that Maxwell has “gone girl” with actress Lindsay Sloane naming her baby girl Maxwell Lue. That’s yet another reason to consider the far less known Maxton for a boy.
Jodi, I fully support the use of Guster as a first name! If we had been pregnant with a boy on this last go-round, our biggest debate was whether to use August and call him Guster or just go straight to Guster. They have played a large role in my relationship with my husband, and we love them. I’m overjoyed to hold my sweet little Louisa June, but August/Guster will always be the name that got away. :)
I have just had a new grandson called Maxon – this is an old Welsh name which has been around for centuries. It really suits him but I expect it will get shortened to Max as he grows up
I love it! My son is Maxon Gage.
Let a “real” Maxon chime in here. I’m 65 and the name has passed down in my family since 1878 when my grandfather was born. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the name all my life. As a kid I loathed it, but grew into it as the years went by. Of course I’m known as Max among friends and only use Maxon when signing something or introducing myself in a formal situation. For kids the name is a little bit of a burden. Kind of has a classy Greek or Roman air to it, I think, which is why I like it now!