Marcellous
Little warlike one; little warrior of Italian origin.
Name Census estimates that about 944 living Americans carry the first name Marcellous. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Marcellous today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marcellous births was 1993 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marcellous. 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.
People living today
944
~ 1 in 363,087 Americans
Peak year
1993
36 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,671
Tracked since 1915
Popularity
Marcellous: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marcellous from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 232 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marcellous 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 Marcellous during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marcellous' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Illinois, California, Michigan recorded the most babies named Marcellous, while Michigan, California, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marcellous
The name Marcellous is derived from the Latin name Marcellus, which itself is a diminutive form of the Roman family name Marcus. Marcus is thought to have originated from the word "mas," meaning male or masculine in Latin. The name Marcellus first appeared in ancient Rome around the 3rd century BC.
Marcellus was the name of a prominent Roman family, the gens Claudia, and several notable historical figures bore this name. One of the earliest recorded instances is Marcus Claudius Marcellus, a Roman consul and military leader who lived from around 268 BC to 208 BC. He was famous for his victories over the Gauls and the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War.
Another famous Marcellus was Marcellus Empiricus, a Gaulish physician and writer who lived in the 4th or 5th century AD. He wrote a medical treatise called "De Medicamentis Liber," which was an important work on herbal medicine in the ancient world.
In the Middle Ages, the name Marcellus was popular among Christian communities, as it was borne by several saints and martyrs. One of the most notable was Saint Marcellus I, who served as Pope from 308 to 309 AD and was martyred for his faith.
During the Renaissance period, the name Marcellus became more widespread in Italy and other parts of Europe. One famous bearer was Marcello Malpighi, an Italian scientist and pioneer of microscopic anatomy, who lived from 1628 to 1694.
Other notable individuals named Marcellus or Marcellous throughout history include:
1. Marcellus of Ancyra, a 4th-century Christian bishop and theologian.
2. Marcellous Gilmore Edson, an American chemist and inventor born in 1849, known for his work on peanut products and the development of peanut butter.
3. Marcellous Lovelace, an American basketball player born in 1963, who played in the NBA for several teams in the 1980s and 1990s.
4. Marcellous Shale, an American football player born in 1966, who played as a defensive back in the NFL in the 1990s.
5. Marcellous Truitt, an American football player born in 1978, who played as a defensive back in the NFL in the early 2000s.
People
Marcellous + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marcellous 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
Marcellous: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marcellous?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 944 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marcellous 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 363,087 US residents.
Is Marcellous a common name?
We classify Marcellous as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,049 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marcellous most popular?
The single biggest year for Marcellous was 1993, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marcellous is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Marcellous a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marcellous in the SSA data are male. 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.
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.