MaikevsMeikeTell them apart

Which to use

“Maike” and “Meike” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,311
“Maike” frequency rank
#38,282
“Meike” frequency rank
73593
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Maike Meike
Definition weiblicher Vorname weiblicher Vorname

Same sound, different letters: Maike vs Meike

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. Maike and Meike follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Maike
5 ch
Meike

Ear matches; page differs - Maike and Meike

This is the hard kind. Maike and Meike are pronounced identically ([ˈmaɪ̯kə]) and both work as aname. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - a in “Maike” becomes e in “Meike”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Maike is recorded at frequency rank #35,311, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯kə]. Meike is at rank #38,282, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈmaɪ̯kə].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 73593, this pair ranks #356,121 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Maike vs Meike

Shared letters: eikm. Private to "Maike": a. Private to "Meike": -.

"Maike" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Meike" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maike ← amike · maiek · maikke · makie · miake · mmaike
  • Meike ← emike · meiek · meikke · mekie · mieke · mmeike

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Maike" for "Meike" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same ([ˈmaɪ̯kə]), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary German text, does "Maike" or "Meike" show up more?
"Maike" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,311 in our German list, against #38,282 for "Meike". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Maike" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Meike" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #356,121 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Maike" and "Meike" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meike vs Mette". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #356,121 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list