Mab as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Mab

What is the meaning of the name Mab ?

The baby name Mab is a Female name , 1 syllables long and is pronounced MAB (IPA: /mæb/).

Mab is English in Origin.

Mab is an English short form with deep literary echoes. Most commonly it derives from Mabel, itself a medieval contraction of Amabel, from Latin amabilis, “lovable.” Middle English records show Mabbe/Mabb as affectionate by-forms that sometimes stood alone as given names, and these persisted into Early Modern parish rolls.

Through folklore and stage, the name became linked with Queen Mab, the capricious fairy of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Michael Drayton’s Nymphidia, which helped Victorian parents revive it in a whimsical vein. Variants and cognates include Mabel, Mable, Amabel, and the spellings Mabb/Mabbe; Mabs appears as a nickname. It is occasionally treated as an ultra-brief Anglicization of Irish Medb/Meabh (Maeve) - meaning “intoxicating” - though that origin is separate. Taken via the Mabel/Amabel line, Mab carries the meaning “lovable,” with a brisk, antique charm.