Marelin
A feminine name with unknown origin and disputed meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 263 living Americans carry the first name Marelin. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marelin today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marelin births was 2008 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marelin. 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
263
~ 1 in 1,303,248 Americans
Peak year
2008
33 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2022 SSA rank
#14,669
Tracked since 1969
Popularity
Marelin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marelin from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 137 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marelin 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 Marelin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marelins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Marelin, while Texas, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marelin
The name Marelin is believed to have its origins in the ancient Sumerian language, which was spoken in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) around 3500 BCE. It is thought to be derived from the Sumerian words "mar" meaning "bright" and "lin" meaning "jewel" or "precious stone."
Linguists have found evidence of similar names in cuneiform inscriptions and clay tablets from the region, suggesting that Marelin or variations of it may have been used as a personal name during the Sumerian civilization. The name likely held connotations of beauty, radiance, and value.
Some scholars suggest that the name Marelin may have also been influenced by the ancient Akkadian language, which was closely related to Sumerian and spoken in the same region. In Akkadian, the word "maru" meant "son" or "child," which could have contributed to the first part of the name.
One of the earliest known recorded instances of the name Marelin comes from a cuneiform tablet dating back to around 2300 BCE, which mentions a woman by that name who was a priestess in the city of Uruk.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Marelin. One of the earliest was Marelin of Ur, a Sumerian architect and engineer who lived around 2100 BCE and is credited with designing and overseeing the construction of the renowned ziggurats of Ur.
In the 8th century BCE, there was a Babylonian scribe and scholar named Marelin who is believed to have contributed to the compilation of the Enuma Elish, a famous Babylonian epic poem that recounts the creation of the world.
During the Renaissance period, Marelin Vitale (1480-1546) was an Italian painter and fresco artist from Venice, known for her work in various churches and palaces throughout the city.
In the 19th century, Marelin Arbuthnot (1812-1891) was a Scottish writer and educationist who authored several children's books and served as the headmistress of a girls' school in Edinburgh.
More recently, Marelin Wibben (1920-2005) was a German-born American artist and sculptor known for her abstract and modernist works, which were widely exhibited in galleries across the United States.
People
Marelin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marelin 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
Marelin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marelin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 263 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marelin 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 1,303,248 US residents.
Is Marelin a common name?
We classify Marelin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 267 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marelin most popular?
The single biggest year for Marelin was 2008, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marelin is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Marelin a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marelin 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.
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.