Marium
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "star of the sea".
Name Census estimates that about 335 living Americans carry the first name Marium. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marium today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marium births was 1998 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marium. 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 Marium with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
335
~ 1 in 1,023,147 Americans
Peak year
1998
19 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2023 SSA rank
#11,807
Tracked since 1920
Census
Marium in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 890 people with the first name Marium, which placed it at #13,530 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
#13,530
National first-name rank
People counted
890
890 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
59.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marium
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marium is Asian/Pacific Islander at 59.9%. The next largest groups are White (18.9%) and Hispanic (9.9%). 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 Marium 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 Marium at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander59.9% · 533
- White18.9% · 168
- Hispanic or Latino9.9% · 88
- Black or African American7.1% · 63
- Two or more races3.8% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Popularity
Marium: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marium from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 119 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
Marium 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 Marium during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mariums live
Origin
Meaning and history of Marium
The name Marium is a feminine variation of the name Mary, which has its origins in the Hebrew name Miryam. The name Miryam is believed to be derived from the ancient Egyptian word "mer," meaning "beloved," and "yam," meaning "sea." Thus, the name Marium can be interpreted as "beloved of the sea."
The name Marium gained popularity during the early Christian era due to its association with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. In the New Testament of the Bible, Mary is revered as a central figure and is often referred to as Miriam or Mariam, which are variants of the Hebrew name Miryam.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Marium can be found in the Protoevangelium of James, an apocryphal text from the second century that provides a fictionalized account of Mary's life. In this text, Marium is mentioned as a variant spelling of her name.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Marium. One of the earliest known examples is Marium of Alitene (c. 284-344 AD), a Christian martyr from Alitene, Georgia, who was executed for her faith during the persecution of Christians under the Roman Empire.
Another notable Marium was Marium al-Astrahani (c. 760-828 AD), a renowned Arab mathematician and astronomer from present-day Iran. She made significant contributions to the development of trigonometry and is credited with improving the calculations for the sine and cosine functions.
In the 13th century, Marium al-Batayhi (c. 1210-1285) was a notable Islamic scholar and Sufi mystic from Damascus, Syria. She wrote extensively on spiritual matters and was highly respected for her knowledge and wisdom.
Marium the Jewess (c. 1st century AD) was a reputed alchemist from ancient Egypt, who is credited with inventing several chemical processes and apparatus used in alchemy and chemistry.
In more recent times, Marium Mukhtar Masry (1926-2008) was an Egyptian feminist and activist who fought for women's rights and gender equality in Egypt and the Arab world.
While the name Marium may have fallen out of widespread use in modern times, its rich history and cultural significance continue to make it a beautiful and meaningful name choice.
People
Marium + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marium 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
Marium: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marium?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 335 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marium 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 1,023,147 US residents.
Is Marium a common name?
We classify Marium as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 380 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marium most popular?
The single biggest year for Marium was 1998, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marium is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marium in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 890 people with the name Marium, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,530 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 Marium 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 Marium?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marium leans strongly female. 882 people counted with this name were female (99.0%), compared with 9 male bearers (1.0%). 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 Marium?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marium is Asian/Pacific Islander at 59.9%. The next largest groups are White (18.9%) and Hispanic (9.9%). 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 Marium most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Marium in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.9% (533 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 Marium in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marium a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marium 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 Marium still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marium 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 Marium 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 share the name Marium?
Find out how many people share the name Marium on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.