Variant of Mabel, from Latin amabilis (lovable), with the trendy Mae- spelling reflecting a vintage revival.
Maebel is a variant spelling of Mabel, a name with roots that reach back to the Latin Amabilis, meaning lovable or dear, which was used in early medieval Christian communities to describe qualities of the soul worth cultivating. The name appears in Norman and Plantagenet English records from the eleventh century onward, borne by noblewomen and common folk alike — Mabel of Bellême was the powerful and rather terrifying Countess of Shrewsbury in the eleventh century, suggesting the name was not always only gentle. It faded in the later medieval period and again after the seventeenth century, surviving mainly in rural communities and older family lines.
The Victorian era brought Mabel back with enthusiasm. It became a name associated with a certain warm, unhurried femininity — a parlor and garden name, fragrant with woodbine and tea roses. The operetta The Pirates of Penzance gave it cultural currency in 1879, and throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Mabel was broadly beloved.
It fell again mid-century, victim to its own sweetness, which began to read as old-fashioned. The current revival of vintage names has brought it back once more, and the Maebel spelling — Mae suggesting Jazz Age glamour, the -bel suffix a nod to the beautiful — makes the name feel simultaneously antique and freshly chosen. It is a name that always returns, because the quality it describes — lovableness — never goes out of style.