Mariana
Of Latin origin, meaning "of the sea" or "sea star".
Name Census estimates that about 42,583 living Americans carry the first name Mariana. It sits at #242 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mariana today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mariana births was 2005 (2,069 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mariana. 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 Mariana with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Mariana is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 85 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
43K
~ 1 in 8,049 Americans
Peak year
2005
2,069 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2007 SSA rank
#242
Tracked since 1888
Census
Mariana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 56,195 people with the first name Mariana, which placed it at #832 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
#832
National first-name rank
People counted
56K
56,195 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
18.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
78.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mariana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mariana is Hispanic at 78.8%. The next largest groups are White (16.9%) and Black (2.1%). 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 Mariana 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 Mariana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino78.8% · 44,309
- White16.9% · 9,482
- Black or African American2.1% · 1,153
- Two or more races1.0% · 579
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 531
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 141
Gender
Gender distribution for Mariana
Out of the 44,770 babies given the name Mariana since 1880, 99.8% 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.
Mariana as a male name
- Ranked #13,666 in 2007
- 5 male births in 2007
- Peak: 1989 (9 births)
Mariana as a female name
- Ranked #242 in 2024
- 1,296 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2005 (2,062 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mariana appears almost entirely female. Of the 56,200 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Mariana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mariana from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 15,862 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Mariana remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mariana 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 Mariana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marianas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Mariana, while Maine, Hawaii, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 944 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mariana
The name Mariana has its roots in Latin and ancient Rome. It is a feminine form derived from the name Marianus, which itself came from the Roman family name Marius. The Latin name Marius may have originated from the word "mas" meaning male or masculine.
Mariana was a name used in ancient Rome, though not extremely common. One of the earliest recorded instances was Mariana, the second wife of the Roman emperor Heraclius who ruled in the 7th century AD. She held the title of Augusta alongside Heraclius.
Another early bearer of the name was Saint Mariana of Jesus, a Spanish-Portuguese nun who lived in the 16th century and founded the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception in Portugal. She was beatified in 1776 and canonized as a saint in 1950.
During the Renaissance period, the name grew in popularity across Europe, particularly in Italy and Spain. A notable Italian bearer was Mariana Vittoria, an acclaimed opera singer active in the late 17th century. In Spain, Mariana of Austria was the queen consort from 1649 to 1665 as the wife of Philip IV of Spain.
The name also has ties to English literature and history. Mariana is the name of a character in Shakespeare's play "Measure for Measure" from around 1603. Additionally, Mariana Alcoforado was a Portuguese nun in the 17th century known for the famous "Letters of a Portuguese Nun" which detailed her unrequited love.
Some other notable historical figures with the first name Mariana include Mariana Pineda (1804-1831), a Spanish revolutionary; Mariana Monteiro (1608-1650), a Portuguese writer and poet; and Mariana Bracetti (1825-1904), a Puerto Rican revolutionary and women's rights activist.
People
Mariana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mariana 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
Mariana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mariana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 42,583 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mariana 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 8,049 US residents.
Is Mariana a common name?
We classify Mariana as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 44,770 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mariana most popular?
The single biggest year for Mariana was 2005, when 2,069 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mariana is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mariana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 56,195 people with the name Mariana, or 18.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #832 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 Mariana 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 Mariana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mariana appears almost entirely female. Of the 56,200 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Mariana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mariana is Hispanic at 78.8%. The next largest groups are White (16.9%) and Black (2.1%). 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 Mariana most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Mariana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.8% (44,309 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 Mariana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mariana a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Mariana 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 Mariana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mariana 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 Mariana 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 the name Mariana?
See how many people have the name Mariana on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.