It may derive from a word meaning "she who intoxicates", "mead-woman", or alternatively "she who rules".

[3] Medb is a queen in Irish mythology who is thought to have originally been a sovereignty goddess.

[4] Maeve (in that spelling) was a Top 100 girls' name in Ireland for all but 12 of the 46 years between 1964 and 2009, and Meabh ranked 99th on the list of the most popular Irish girls' names of 2020.

In Northern Ireland, Maeve was a Top 100 girls' name between 1997 and 2004, and Meabh ranked 44th in 2017.

It has also increased in usage in the Netherlands, where it was among the top 500 names for girls in 2014 and again between 2017 and 2021.