Maru

Gentle in sound, multicultural in origin, and cool and succinct in style, the name Maru is fresh feeling choice. Borne by a Scottish Straight cat from Japan (once dubbed the most famous cat on the internet), the name was also chosen by actress Madison Reyes for her son in 2025.

Maru has its roots in Japanese, in which it means "circle", and in Amharic, from which it gets the sweet meaning "honey". In Tswana, it is related to rain clouds, while in Māori, it is the name of a god of war and fresh water, best known in southern New Zealand, and possibly related to the words marino and mārū meaning "gentle, calm" or to marutau and haumaru meaning "safe, safety".

Maru is also used as a Spanish 'smoosh' name, usually as a contracted form of Marie Eugenia, but it could be used for a name like Matteo Ruben, Marcos Eugenio, or similar. Additionally, it is used as an Indian surname, likely referring to a region of India called Marwar which ultimately gets its name from a Sanskrit word meaning "desert, sandy, dry".

Pronounced MAR-oo.

As of October 2026, Maru ranked #9523 in US births in 2024 SSA.