Marcuse
A masculine name of German origin meaning "man from Mars".
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Marcuse. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Marcuse today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marcuse births was 1991 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marcuse. 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 Marcuse. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
1991
5 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
1991 SSA rank
#9,097
Tracked since 1991
Popularity
Marcuse: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Marcuse 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 Marcuse during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Marcuse
The given name Marcuse has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically in the Old High German and Old Saxon dialects. It is believed to have emerged around the 8th or 9th century AD. The name is a compound of two elements: "marc" meaning "boundary" or "frontier," and "hūs" meaning "house" or "dwelling." Thus, the original meaning of Marcuse was likely "one who lived on the border" or "one who guarded the frontier."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Marcuse can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae, a collection of medieval documents from the region of Saxony, dating back to the 10th century. In these records, the name appears as "Marchusius" and "Marchusius de Quidelingeburg," referring to individuals from the town of Quedlinburg.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Marcuse was predominantly found in Germanic-speaking regions, particularly in what is now Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It was not uncommon for individuals bearing this name to be associated with roles related to guarding borders, protecting frontier territories, or residing in border settlements.
One notable historical figure who bore the name Marcuse was Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979), a German-American philosopher and sociologist. He was a prominent member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory and is best known for his works critiquing capitalist society and advocating for social change.
Another individual with the given name Marcuse was Marcuse Pfeifer (1818-1890), a German-American businessman and politician who served as the 15th Governor of Kansas from 1867 to 1869. He was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, and later immigrated to the United States.
In the realm of literature, there was Marcuse Herz (1747-1803), a German writer and philosopher who was part of the Jewish Enlightenment movement known as the Haskalah. He was born in Berlin and is known for his contributions to the development of modern Hebrew literature.
Marcuse Loewy (1799-1853) was a German-Jewish banker and philanthropist from Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland). He was a prominent figure in the Jewish community and supported various charitable causes.
Lastly, Marcuse Sternberg (1867-1941) was a German-Jewish rabbi and scholar born in Dessau, Germany. He served as the Chief Rabbi of the Berlin Jewish Community and was known for his work in promoting Jewish education and culture.
People
Marcuse + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marcuse 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
Marcuse: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marcuse?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marcuse 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Marcuse a common name?
We classify Marcuse as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marcuse most popular?
The single biggest year for Marcuse was 1991, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marcuse is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Marcuse in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marcuse a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marcuse 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.
Is Marcuse still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marcuse 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 Marcuse 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How common is the name Marcuse?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.