Maurice
From Latin, pointing back to Mauretania in North Africa: the name marks a Moor, someone dark-skinned. In Poland it stays rare, carried by around 130 men and given to almost no boys now.
Maurice Pronunciation
Maurice is pronounced mah-oo-REE-tse (/mauˈrit͡sɛ/).
What Maurice means
Where Maurice comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Maurice comes from the Latin Mauritius, formed on Maurus, the word Romans used for someone from Mauretania, a Moor. The short meaning holds to that root: dark-skinned, a man from that North African province. From Latin the name passed into French and English without much reshaping.
Its earliest famous bearer was Saint Maurice, a commander of the Theban Legion who was executed around the year 287 for refusing an imperial order. His cult spread wide, and towns and churches across Europe took his name. France kept it especially close. Maurice Ravel composed the Boléro, and Maurice Chevalier sang across French and English stages. In English letters the name gained a novel of its own, E.M. Forster's Maurice, written in 1913 and published only in 1971.
The origin is Latin. On a Polish form at the urząd, filled in by a family with French ties, Maurice stands as it always has, close to the Roman word for a man of Mauretania.
How many people are named Maurice
1 in 166767 men in Poland is named Maurice. 128 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2945 among male names.
Maurice's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Maurice as a middle name
Maurice is a first name for 128 men in Poland and a middle name for another 172, a 43/57 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 524th, between Frederick (172) and Dominique (171).
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#522 Harald173
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#523 Frederick172
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#524 Maurice172
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#525 Dominique171
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#526 Ivo171