Maren
Diminutive of Germanic names containing "mar", meaning celebrated or renowned.
Name Census estimates that about 11,724 living Americans carry the first name Maren. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maren today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maren births was 2021 (707 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maren. 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 Maren with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 29,235 Americans
Peak year
2021
707 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2022 SSA rank
#570
Tracked since 1916
Census
Maren in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,313 people with the first name Maren, which placed it at #2,412 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
#2,412
National first-name rank
People counted
10K
10,313 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maren
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maren is White at 89.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.5%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Maren 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 Maren at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.2% · 9,204
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 461
- Two or more races2.9% · 303
- Black or African American1.8% · 182
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 132
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 31
Gender
Gender distribution for Maren
Out of the 12,406 babies given the name Maren since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Maren as a male name
- Ranked #13,614 in 2022
- 5 male births in 2022
- Peak: 2022 (5 births)
Maren as a female name
- Ranked #570 in 2024
- 529 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (707 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maren appears almost entirely female. Of the 10,315 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Maren: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maren from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 3,168 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maren 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 Maren during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. California, Minnesota, Utah recorded the most babies named Maren, while Wyoming, Vermont, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 205 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maren
The name Maren is of Old Norse origin, derived from the Old Norse word "mar," which means "sea" or "lake." The name was particularly popular in Scandinavian countries like Norway, Sweden, and Denmark during the Viking era, which spanned from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries.
The earliest recorded use of the name Maren can be traced back to the 13th century in Norwegian and Danish records. In medieval Scandinavian folklore, Maren was often associated with mermaids and other mythical sea creatures, reflecting its connection to the sea.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Maren was Maren Spliid (c. 1600-1641), a Danish noblewoman and landowner. She was known for her involvement in a high-profile legal dispute over inheritance rights in the early 17th century.
Another notable figure named Maren was Maren Sørsdatter Bakke (1693-1751), a Norwegian farmer and diarist. Her detailed diaries, which documented daily life in rural Norway in the early 18th century, provided valuable insights into the social and cultural history of the time.
In the 19th century, Maren Michelet (1805-1891), a Norwegian writer and translator, gained recognition for her translations of works by authors like Hans Christian Andersen and William Shakespeare into Norwegian.
The name Maren also appeared in literary works, such as the novel "Maren Greje" by Norwegian author Alexander Kielland (1849-1906), which depicted the life of a young woman in rural Norway in the 19th century.
In more recent history, Maren Haugli (1900-1996), a Norwegian politician and feminist, made significant contributions to the advancement of women's rights in Norway during the 20th century.
While the name Maren has its roots in Scandinavia, it has also gained popularity in other parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries, where it is often spelled as "Marin" or "Maren."
People
Maren + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maren 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
Maren: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maren?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11,724 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maren 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 29,235 US residents.
Is Maren a common name?
We classify Maren as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12,406 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maren most popular?
The single biggest year for Maren was 2021, when 707 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maren is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maren in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,313 people with the name Maren, or 3.41 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,412 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 Maren 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 Maren?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maren appears almost entirely female. Of the 10,315 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 Maren?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maren is White at 89.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.5%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Maren most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maren in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.2% (9,204 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 Maren in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maren a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maren 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 Maren still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maren 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 Maren 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 common is the name Maren?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Maren at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.