Mariel
A French feminine name derived from the Latin name Maria, meaning "bitter."
Name Census estimates that about 6,706 living Americans carry the first name Mariel. It is a predominantly female name (98.4% of registrations). The average person named Mariel today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mariel births was 1992 (268 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mariel. 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 Mariel with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Mariel is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 116 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
6.7K
~ 1 in 51,112 Americans
Peak year
1992
268 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2016 SSA rank
#1,039
Tracked since 1914
Census
Mariel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,034 people with the first name Mariel, which placed it at #2,628 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
#2,628
National first-name rank
People counted
9.0K
9,034 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
57.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mariel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mariel is Hispanic at 57.0%. The next largest groups are White (26.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.0%). 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 Mariel 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 Mariel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino57.0% · 5,146
- White26.7% · 2,416
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.0% · 809
- Black or African American4.7% · 422
- Two or more races2.4% · 217
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 24
Gender
Gender distribution for Mariel
Mariel leans heavily female at 98.4% of total registrations, but 116 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mariel as a male name
- Ranked #13,480 in 2016
- 5 male births in 2016
- Peak: 1989 (11 births)
Mariel as a female name
- Ranked #1,039 in 2024
- 241 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1992 (268 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mariel leans strongly female. 8,771 people counted with this name were female (97.1%), compared with 262 male bearers (2.9%).
Popularity
Mariel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mariel from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,886 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Mariel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mariel 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 Mariel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mariels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Mariel, while Nevada, Louisiana, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 201 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mariel
The name Mariel is derived from the French name Marie, which in turn originated from the ancient Hebrew name Miryam. The name Miryam is believed to be derived from the Hebrew root words "mar" meaning "bitter" or "beloved," and "yam" meaning "sea." This combination suggests the name may have meant "beloved of the sea" or "star of the sea."
In the Middle Ages, the name Marie became popular across Europe as a result of the widespread veneration of the Virgin Mary. The French variant Mariel emerged as a diminutive form of Marie, with the addition of the suffix "-el" or "-elle," which is a common way of creating pet names or nicknames in French.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mariel can be found in the 13th-century French epic poem "Roman de la Rose," written by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. In this work, a character named Mariel is mentioned, although details about her significance are scarce.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Mariel. One of the most famous was Mariel Hemingway, an American actress born in 1961, who is the granddaughter of the renowned writer Ernest Hemingway. She rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, starring in films such as "Manhattan" and "Star 80."
Another notable Mariel was Mariel Zagunis, an American fencer born in 1984. She has won multiple Olympic gold medals in sabre fencing, making her one of the most successful fencers in United States history.
In the world of literature, Mariel was the name of a character in the 1980 novel "The Mosquito Coast" by Paul Theroux. This fictional character was the daughter of the novel's main protagonist, an eccentric inventor who decides to move his family to a remote region of Honduras.
Historically, the name Mariel has also been associated with a significant event in Cuban history. In 1980, the Mariel boatlift saw a mass exodus of Cuban citizens from the port of Mariel to the United States, marking a pivotal moment in the complex relationship between the two countries.
Finally, Mariel Hemingway's grandmother, the writer Mariel Greenwood Hemingway (1913-1986), also bore this name. She was the first wife of Ernest Hemingway and played a significant role in the early years of his literary career.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Mariel
People
Mariel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mariel 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
Mariel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mariel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,706 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mariel 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 51,112 US residents.
Is Mariel a common name?
We classify Mariel as "Rare". It ranks above 97.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,298 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mariel most popular?
The single biggest year for Mariel was 1992, when 268 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mariel is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mariel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,034 people with the name Mariel, or 2.99 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,628 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 Mariel 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 Mariel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mariel leans strongly female. 8,771 people counted with this name were female (97.1%), compared with 262 male bearers (2.9%). 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 Mariel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mariel is Hispanic at 57.0%. The next largest groups are White (26.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.0%). 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 Mariel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Mariel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.0% (5,146 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 Mariel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mariel a female name?
Yes, 98.4% of people registered as Mariel 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 Mariel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mariel 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 Mariel 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 are named Mariel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.