Mario
An Italian masculine name derived from Mars, the Roman god of war.
Name Census estimates that about 131,578 living Americans carry the first name Mario. It sits at #398 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.3% of registrations). The average person named Mario today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mario births was 1980 (2,974 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mario. 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 Mario with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Mario is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,093 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
132K
~ 1 in 2,605 Americans
Peak year
1980
2,974 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#398
Tracked since 1897
Census
Mario in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 213,071 people with the first name Mario, which placed it at #261 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
#261
National first-name rank
People counted
213K
213,071 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
70.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
77.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mario
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mario is Hispanic at 77.0%. The next largest groups are White (12.2%) and Black (7.6%). 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 Mario 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 Mario at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino77.0% · 164,056
- White12.2% · 26,082
- Black or African American7.6% · 16,272
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 4,416
- Two or more races0.7% · 1,554
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 691
Gender
Gender distribution for Mario
Out of the 151,662 babies given the name Mario since 1880, 99.3% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Mario as a male name
- Ranked #398 in 2024
- 808 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1980 (2,936 births)
Mario as a female name
- Ranked #16,745 in 2008
- 6 female births in 2008
- Peak: 1987 (43 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mario appears almost entirely male. Of the 213,074 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Mario: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mario from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 26,705 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mario 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 Mario during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marios live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Mario, while South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,142 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mario
The name Mario is a masculine given name of Italian origin, derived from the Roman name Marius. It has its roots in the Latin word "mas," meaning "male" or "masculine." The name became popular during the Roman Empire, particularly in the late Republic and early Imperial periods.
Marius was a prominent Roman family name, with several notable historical figures bearing it. One of the most famous was Gaius Marius, a Roman general and statesman who lived from 157 BC to 86 BC. He was a key figure in the Roman Republic's transition from a traditional oligarchy to a more autocratic system.
The name Mario can be traced back to ancient Roman texts and inscriptions, where it was often written as "Marius" or "Marius." It was a common name among the Roman nobility and patrician class, as well as among soldiers and commoners.
During the Middle Ages, the name Mario continued to be used in Italy, particularly in regions like Tuscany and Lazio. It gained popularity among the Italian nobility and ruling classes, with several notable figures bearing the name.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Mario dates back to the 12th century. Mario Salomone, an Italian jurist and scholar, lived from around 1150 to 1230. He was a prominent figure in the legal and academic circles of his time.
Another notable Mario from history was Mario Sforza (1455-1479), a member of the powerful Sforza family that ruled Milan during the Renaissance. He was a noted military leader and played a significant role in the Italian Wars.
In the 16th century, Mario Nuzzi (1603-1673) was an Italian painter and architect from Rome. He is known for his contributions to the Baroque style and his work on several churches and palaces in Rome.
During the 19th century, Mario Rapisardi (1844-1912) was an Italian poet and literary critic. He is considered one of the leading figures of the Verismo literary movement in Italy.
One of the most famous individuals named Mario in more recent history was Mario Lanza (1921-1959), an American tenor and Hollywood actor of Italian descent. He was renowned for his powerful voice and successful operatic and film career.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Mario
People
Mario + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mario 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
Mario: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mario?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 131,578 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mario 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 2,605 US residents.
Is Mario a common name?
We classify Mario as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 151,662 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mario most popular?
The single biggest year for Mario was 1980, when 2,974 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mario is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mario in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 213,071 people with the name Mario, or 70.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #261 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 Mario 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 Mario?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mario appears almost entirely male. Of the 213,074 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Mario?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mario is Hispanic at 77.0%. The next largest groups are White (12.2%) and Black (7.6%). 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 Mario most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Mario in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.0% (164,056 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 Mario in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mario a male name?
Yes, 99.3% of people registered as Mario in the SSA data are male. 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 Mario still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mario 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 Mario 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 Mario?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.