MaevevsMaudeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Maeve” and “Maude” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,246
“Maeve” frequency rank
#27,211
“Maude” frequency rank
70457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Maeve Maude
Definition A female given name from Irish of mostly Irish usage. A female given name from French; a variant of Maud. This is the most common spelling in English-speaking regions.

Letter map: Maeve vs Maude

Shared letters muted; letters that set Maeve and Maude apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Maeve and Maude follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Maeve
5 ch
Maude

Pair insight - Maeve / Maude

Maeve and Maude are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Maeve is recorded at frequency rank #43,246, classified as aname, pronounced /meɪv/. Maude is at rank #27,211, tagged as aname.

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 70457, this pair ranks #50,508 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Maeve vs Maude

Shared letters: aem. Private to "Maeve": v. Private to "Maude": du.

"Maeve" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Maude" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maeve ← ameve · maeev · maevve · mavee · meave · mmaeve
  • Maude ← amude · madue · maudde · maued · mmaude · muade

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Maeve" and "Maude" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "Maeve" vs "Maude" - which ranks higher?
"Maude" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,211 in our English list, against #43,246 for "Maeve". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Maeve" and "Maude". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Maeve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Maude" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,508 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Maeve" and "Maude" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maeve vs Marne". 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 #50,508 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list