Marcy
A French feminine name derived from Mars, the Roman god of war.
Name Census estimates that about 17,886 living Americans carry the first name Marcy. It is a predominantly female name (98.8% of registrations). The average person named Marcy today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marcy births was 1971 (1,161 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marcy. 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 Marcy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Marcy is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 256 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 19,163 Americans
Peak year
1971
1,161 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
1985 SSA rank
#3,783
Tracked since 1915
Census
Marcy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 19,969 people with the first name Marcy, which placed it at #1,604 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
#1,604
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
19,969 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marcy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marcy is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.6%) and Black (4.3%). 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 Marcy 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 Marcy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.6% · 16,685
- Hispanic or Latino7.6% · 1,522
- Black or African American4.3% · 850
- Two or more races2.4% · 479
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 279
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 154
Gender
Gender distribution for Marcy
Marcy leans heavily female at 98.8% of total registrations, but 256 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Marcy as a male name
- Ranked #7,187 in 1985
- 5 male births in 1985
- Peak: 1928 (10 births)
Marcy as a female name
- Ranked #3,783 in 2024
- 40 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1971 (1,155 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marcy appears almost entirely female. Of the 19,966 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Marcy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marcy from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 6,425 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marcy 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 Marcy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marcys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Marcy, while Wyoming, Hawaii, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 371 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marcy
The given name Marcy is derived from the Latin name Marcius, which was a Roman family name. It is believed to have originated from the Roman god Mars, who was the god of war. The name Marcius dates back to ancient Rome, around the 8th century BC.
In the Middle Ages, the name Marcius evolved into various forms, including Marcy, Marcey, and Marcie. These forms were primarily used in France and England during the medieval period. The name Marcy was particularly popular among the French nobility.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Marcy can be found in the 11th century, when a French noblewoman named Marcy de Montfort was mentioned in historical records. She was the daughter of a prominent French lord and was known for her piety and charitable works.
In the 12th century, a French knight named Marcy de Villiers was a prominent figure during the Crusades. He fought alongside Richard the Lionheart and was celebrated for his bravery and valor on the battlefield.
During the Renaissance period, the name Marcy gained popularity in Italy. One notable figure from this time was Marcy Ficino (1433-1499), an Italian philosopher and scholar who played a significant role in the revival of Platonic philosophy.
In the 17th century, the name Marcy was associated with a French noblewoman named Marcy de Sévigné (1626-1696). She was an influential figure in the literary salons of Paris and is renowned for her witty and insightful letters, which provide a valuable glimpse into the social and cultural life of 17th-century France.
Another prominent figure with the name Marcy was Marcy Curie (1867-1934), a Polish-born physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering work on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice.
While the name Marcy has its roots in ancient Rome and has been used throughout history in various cultures, it has maintained a strong association with its French origins and has been particularly popular in France and other French-speaking regions.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Marcy
People
Marcy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marcy 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
Marcy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marcy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17,886 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marcy 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 19,163 US residents.
Is Marcy a common name?
We classify Marcy as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 21,996 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marcy most popular?
The single biggest year for Marcy was 1971, when 1,161 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marcy is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marcy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 19,969 people with the name Marcy, or 6.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,604 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 Marcy 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 Marcy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marcy appears almost entirely female. Of the 19,966 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Marcy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marcy is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.6%) and Black (4.3%). 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 Marcy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marcy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.6% (16,685 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 Marcy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marcy a female name?
Yes, 98.8% of people registered as Marcy 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 Marcy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marcy 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 Marcy 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 Marcy?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.