Marden
A masculine name of Old English origin meaning "great valley".
Name Census estimates that about 21 living Americans carry the first name Marden. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Marden today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marden births was 1920 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marden. 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 Marden. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
21
~ 1 in 16,321,635 Americans
Peak year
1920
6 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2022 SSA rank
#13,612
Tracked since 1912
Census
Marden in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 221 people with the first name Marden, which placed it at #36,071 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
#36,071
National first-name rank
People counted
221
221 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marden
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marden is White at 41.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (40.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.7%). 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 Marden 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 Marden at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.6% · 92
- Hispanic or Latino40.7% · 90
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.7% · 17
- Black or African American6.8% · 15
- Two or more races2.3% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 2
Popularity
Marden: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marden from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 15 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Marden remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marden 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 Marden 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 Marden
The name Marden is believed to have originated from the Old English language, dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, which lasted from the 5th to the 11th century. It is thought to be derived from the Old English words "mere" and "dun," which together mean "hill by the lake" or "hill by the marshland."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Marden can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of land ownership and property values in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appeared in the form "Meredun," referring to a settlement in the county of Hertfordshire.
During the Middle Ages, the name Marden was primarily associated with individuals living in rural areas or involved in agricultural activities, possibly reflecting its connection to the landscape and natural features described in its etymology.
The name Marden was also found in various historical records and documents throughout the centuries, although its usage was more prevalent in certain regions of England, particularly in the counties of Hertfordshire, Kent, and Sussex.
One notable individual with the name Marden was Richard Marden (c. 1450 - c. 1520), an English landowner and Member of Parliament for the county of Kent during the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII.
Another historical figure bearing the name Marden was John Marden (1516 - 1568), an English Protestant reformer and author who wrote several theological works during the tumultuous period of the English Reformation.
In the 17th century, Thomas Marden (1620 - 1699) was a prominent Puritan minister and author in New England, having emigrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s.
During the 18th century, Benjamin Marden (1722 - 1799) was a notable American soldier and military officer who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
In the 19th century, Edward Marden (1824 - 1892) was a British artist and painter known for his landscapes and rural scenes, many of which depicted the countryside of his native Kent.
While the name Marden has its roots in Old English and was predominantly used in certain regions of England throughout history, it has since spread to other parts of the world, though its usage has remained relatively uncommon in comparison to more popular given names.
People
Marden + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marden 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
Marden: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marden?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marden 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 16,321,635 US residents.
Is Marden a common name?
We classify Marden as "Very Rare". It ranks above 40.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 53 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marden most popular?
The single biggest year for Marden was 1920, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marden is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marden in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 221 people with the name Marden, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,071 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 Marden 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 Marden?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marden leans strongly male. 183 people counted with this name were male (84.7%), compared with 33 female bearers (15.3%). 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 Marden?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marden is White at 41.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (40.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.7%). 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 Marden most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marden in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.6% (92 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 Marden in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marden a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marden 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 Marden still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marden 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 Marden 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 have Marden as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Marden, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.