Mardy
A variant of the English name "Mardee", representing tenacity and strength.
Name Census estimates that about 237 living Americans carry the first name Mardy. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Mardy today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mardy births was 1957 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mardy. 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
237
~ 1 in 1,446,221 Americans
Peak year
1957
17 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
1990 SSA rank
#7,438
Tracked since 1948
Census
Mardy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 491 people with the first name Mardy, which placed it at #20,884 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
#20,884
National first-name rank
People counted
491
491 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mardy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mardy is White at 54.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (17.3%) and Hispanic (13.2%). 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 Mardy 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 Mardy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.2% · 266
- Asian and Pacific Islander17.3% · 85
- Hispanic or Latino13.2% · 65
- Black or African American10.2% · 50
- Two or more races3.3% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Mardy
Mardy is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 285 total registrations, 219 (76.8%) were male and 66 (23.2%) were female.
Mardy as a male name
- Ranked #7,747 in 1990
- 6 male births in 1990
- Peak: 1960 (14 births)
Mardy as a female name
- Ranked #7,438 in 1967
- 5 female births in 1967
- Peak: 1950 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mardy on both sides of the split. Of the 491 people counted with this name, 283 were male (57.6%) and 208 were female (42.4%).
Popularity
Mardy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mardy from the 1940s through to the 1990s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 98 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mardy 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 Mardy 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 Mardy
The name Mardy is a variant of the name Mardie, which is believed to have originated in the Middle English language during the medieval period. It is thought to be a diminutive form of the name Mardith, which was derived from the Old English word "mere" meaning "famous" or "renowned."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mardy can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of the great survey of England completed in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. In this text, a landowner named Mardy is mentioned as holding property in the county of Yorkshire.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Mardy was relatively uncommon but was used sporadically in various parts of England. It is possible that the name was also used in other parts of the British Isles, as well as in certain areas of continental Europe where English influence was present.
One notable historical figure who bore the name Mardy was Mardy ap Rhys, a Welsh soldier and nobleman who lived in the late 13th century and fought alongside King Edward I during the conquest of Wales. Another individual of note was Mardy of Dunstable, a 14th-century English monk and chronicler who wrote about the events of his time.
In the 15th century, a woman named Mardy Shelton was among the ladies-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth of York, the wife of King Henry VII. Centuries later, in the 18th century, there was a Mardy Browne who served as a member of the British Parliament representing the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Another notable bearer of the name was Mardy Murie, an American naturalist and conservationist who was born in 1902 and played a significant role in the establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 and is considered a pioneering figure in the environmental movement.
While not as common as some other names, Mardy has maintained a presence throughout history, appearing in various records and carried by individuals from diverse backgrounds and walks of life. Its origins can be traced back to the English language and the medieval period, reflecting its long-standing roots in the cultural heritage of the British Isles.
People
Mardy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mardy 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
Mardy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mardy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 237 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mardy 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 1,446,221 US residents.
Is Mardy a common name?
We classify Mardy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 285 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mardy most popular?
The single biggest year for Mardy was 1957, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mardy is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mardy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 491 people with the name Mardy, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,884 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 Mardy 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 Mardy?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mardy on both sides of the split. Of the 491 people counted with this name, 283 were male (57.6%) and 208 were female (42.4%). 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 Mardy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mardy is White at 54.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (17.3%) and Hispanic (13.2%). 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 Mardy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mardy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.2% (266 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 Mardy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mardy a male name?
Yes, 76.8% of people registered as Mardy 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 Mardy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mardy 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 Mardy 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 Americans are named Mardy?
See how many Americans are named Mardy on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.