Marcelia
A feminine name derived from Marcus, a Latin name meaning "martial" or "warlike".
Name Census estimates that about 91 living Americans carry the first name Marcelia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marcelia today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marcelia births was 1970 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marcelia. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Marcelia. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
91
~ 1 in 3,766,531 Americans
Peak year
1970
8 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2020 SSA rank
#16,635
Tracked since 1920
Census
Marcelia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 265 people with the first name Marcelia, which placed it at #32,010 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
#32,010
National first-name rank
People counted
265
265 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
32.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marcelia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marcelia is White at 32.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.8%) and Black (22.6%). 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 Marcelia 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 Marcelia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White32.8% · 87
- Hispanic or Latino32.8% · 87
- Black or African American22.6% · 60
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.5% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.8% · 10
- Two or more races3.4% · 9
Popularity
Marcelia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marcelia from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 24 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marcelia 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 Marcelia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marcelia
The name Marcelia originated from the Roman family name Marcius, which was derived from the Roman god Mars, the god of war. The earliest known bearer of the name was Marcus Claudius Marcellus, a Roman consul and military leader who lived in the 3rd century BC.
In ancient Rome, the name Marcelia was a feminine form of the name Marcellus and was often given to girls born into the Marcellus family. It was a relatively uncommon name, but it did appear in some historical records and inscriptions from that time period.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Marcelia was Marcelia, the daughter of the Roman Emperor Augustus, who lived in the 1st century BC. Another notable bearer of the name was Marcelia, the wife of the Roman philosopher and statesman Seneca the Younger, who lived in the 1st century AD.
During the Middle Ages, the name Marcelia fell out of widespread use, but it did appear occasionally in various European countries. One notable bearer of the name was Marcelia d'Anjou, a French noblewoman who lived in the 13th century and was a member of the House of Anjou.
In the 16th century, the name Marcelia gained some popularity in Italy and was used by several notable families, including the Medici family. One example is Marcelia Salviati, an Italian noblewoman who lived in the 16th century and was the mother of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Another notable individual with the name Marcelia was Marcelia Sembrich, a Polish operatic soprano who lived from 1858 to 1935. She was one of the most famous sopranos of her time and performed at many of the world's leading opera houses.
Overall, while not a particularly common name throughout history, Marcelia has been used by various notable individuals from different cultures and time periods, often with ties to nobility or the arts.
People
Marcelia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marcelia 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
Marcelia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marcelia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 91 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marcelia 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 3,766,531 US residents.
Is Marcelia a common name?
We classify Marcelia as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 136 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marcelia most popular?
The single biggest year for Marcelia was 1970, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marcelia is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marcelia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 265 people with the name Marcelia, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,010 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 Marcelia 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 Marcelia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marcelia appears almost entirely female. Of the 269 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Marcelia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marcelia is White at 32.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.8%) and Black (22.6%). 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 Marcelia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marcelia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 32.8% (87 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 Marcelia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marcelia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marcelia 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 Marcelia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marcelia 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 Marcelia 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 many people share the name Marcelia?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.