Marin
A gender-neutral name of Latin origin referring to the sea or something maritime.
Name Census estimates that about 6,710 living Americans carry the first name Marin. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Marin today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marin births was 2007 (342 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marin. 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 Marin with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Marin started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
People living today
6.7K
~ 1 in 51,081 Americans
Peak year
2007
342 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,900
Tracked since 1913
Census
Marin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,435 people with the first name Marin, which placed it at #2,765 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
#2,765
National first-name rank
People counted
8.4K
8,435 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marin is White at 67.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.6%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Marin 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 Marin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.8% · 5,716
- Hispanic or Latino23.6% · 1,994
- Two or more races3.7% · 314
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 232
- Black or African American1.9% · 157
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 22
Gender
Gender distribution for Marin
Marin leans heavily female at 85.8% of total registrations, but 990 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Marin as a male name
- Ranked #4,971 in 2024
- 20 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (23 births)
Marin as a female name
- Ranked #1,900 in 2024
- 105 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (324 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Marin on both sides of the split. Of the 8,436 people counted with this name, 1,899 were male (22.5%) and 6,537 were female (77.5%).
Popularity
Marin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marin from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 2,386 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
Marin 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 Marin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Marin, while Louisiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 115 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marin
The name Marin has its roots in the Latin language and culture, originating from the word "marinus," which means "of the sea" or "maritime." It was initially used as a surname or a descriptive name for individuals with occupations or connections to the sea, such as sailors, fishermen, or those residing in coastal areas.
In ancient Rome, the name Marin was sometimes given to children born near the sea or during a sea voyage. It became more widespread during the Middle Ages, particularly in regions with strong maritime traditions like Italy, France, and Spain.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Marin dates back to the 4th century AD, when Saint Marin lived as a hermit on the Dalmatian coast (modern-day Croatia). He is venerated as the patron saint of the city of Split.
During the Renaissance period, the name Marin gained popularity among artists and intellectuals. One notable figure was the Italian Renaissance painter Marino Marini (1453-1529), known for his religious works and portraits.
In the 17th century, the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes (1596-1650) had a close friend named Marin Mersenne, a Catholic priest, philosopher, and mathematician who made significant contributions to the development of acoustics and music theory.
The name Marin also has maritime associations in literature, with the character Marin Marineau appearing in the novel "The Chouans" by French author Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850). Marineau was a smuggler and leader of the Royalist insurgents during the French Revolution.
Another prominent figure with the name Marin was the Russian admiral and explorer Marin Ivanovich Chestyakov (1786-1858), who led several expeditions to the North Pacific and the Russian Far East in the early 19th century.
In the 20th century, the name Marin gained recognition through individuals like the American writer and environmentalist Marin Belden (1901-1982), known for her works on nature and conservation, and the French painter Marin Marie (1901-1987), known for his abstract and cubist artworks.
People
Marin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marin 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
Marin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,710 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marin 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 51,081 US residents.
Is Marin a common name?
We classify Marin 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, 6,993 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marin most popular?
The single biggest year for Marin was 2007, when 342 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marin is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,435 people with the name Marin, or 2.79 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,765 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 Marin 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 Marin?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Marin on both sides of the split. Of the 8,436 people counted with this name, 1,899 were male (22.5%) and 6,537 were female (77.5%). 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 Marin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marin is White at 67.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.6%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Marin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.8% (5,716 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 Marin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marin a female name?
Yes, 85.8% of people registered as Marin 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 Marin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marin 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 Marin 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 Marin?
See how many people share the name Marin on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.