Mar
A given name derived from the Latin word for "sea".
Name Census estimates that about 814 living Americans carry the first name Mar. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Mar today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mar births was 2023 (92 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mar. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Mar with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
814
~ 1 in 421,074 Americans
Peak year
2023
92 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,994
Tracked since 1913
Census
Mar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,066 people with the first name Mar, which placed it at #5,553 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,553
National first-name rank
People counted
3.1K
3,066 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
36.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mar is White at 36.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Mar described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Mar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White36.8% · 1,129
- Hispanic or Latino29.8% · 914
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.7% · 512
- Black or African American13.6% · 418
- Two or more races2.6% · 80
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Mar
Mar is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,057 total registrations, 244 (23.1%) were male and 813 (76.9%) were female.
Mar as a male name
- Ranked #8,079 in 2024
- 10 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (20 births)
Mar as a female name
- Ranked #2,994 in 2024
- 55 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (72 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mar on both sides of the split. Of the 3,060 people counted with this name, 1,082 were male (35.4%) and 1,978 were female (64.6%).
Popularity
Mar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mar from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 278 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mar by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Mar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mars live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Mar, while Florida, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 54 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mar
The name Mar has its origins in various cultures and languages around the world. It is believed to derive from the Latin name "Marius," which can be traced back to the Roman Republic era. Marius was a surname meaning "male" or "masculine," and it eventually became a given name in its own right.
Another possible origin is the ancient Aramaic name "Mar," meaning "lord" or "master." This name was often used as a title of respect for religious figures or scholars in the Middle East during the early Christian era. It was sometimes adopted as a personal name as well.
In Sanskrit, the name "Mara" is associated with the Buddhist concept of a spiritual force that represents temptation, attachment, and delusion. It is personified as a demon or deity that tries to obstruct the path to enlightenment. While not a direct etymological link, this cultural reference adds another layer of meaning to the name.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Mar was Mar Saba (439-532 AD), a Christian monk and scholar who established the famous Mar Saba Monastery in the Judean Desert, near Bethlehem. This monastery played a significant role in the development of Eastern Christian theology and monastic traditions.
Another notable figure was Mar Aba I (c. 540-552 AD), a Syriac Christian patriarch who held the title of "Great Metropolitan and Catholicos of the East." He played a crucial role in the spread of Christianity in Mesopotamia and Persia.
In medieval Europe, the name Marius was relatively common, particularly in Italy and France. One famous bearer was Marius the Elder (157-86 BC), a Roman general and statesman who played a pivotal role in the Roman Republic's conflict with Germanic tribes and internal political struggles.
During the Renaissance period, the Italian humanist scholar and poet Marius Philelphus (1480-1559) was a prominent figure in the revival of classical learning and literature.
In more recent times, the French author and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) had the given name Simone-Marie, which combines the French forms of the names Simone and Marie (the French equivalent of Mar).
People
Mar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mar as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 814 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mar going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 421,074 US residents.
Is Mar a common name?
We classify Mar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,057 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mar most popular?
The single biggest year for Mar was 2023, when 92 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mar is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,066 people with the name Mar, or 1.02 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,553 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Mar in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Mar?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mar on both sides of the split. Of the 3,060 people counted with this name, 1,082 were male (35.4%) and 1,978 were female (64.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Mar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mar is White at 36.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Mar most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.8% (1,129 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Mar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mar a female name?
Yes, 76.9% of people registered as Mar in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Mar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mar in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Mar can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Mar?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.