Mark
Of Latin origin meaning "consecrated to the god Mars".
Name Census estimates that about 1,144,344 living Americans carry the first name Mark. It sits at #246 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mark today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mark births was 1960 (58,852 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mark. 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 Mark with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Mark is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 4,496 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Mark have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
1.1M
~ 1 in 300 Americans
Peak year
1960
58,852 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2024 SSA rank
#246
Tracked since 1880
Census
Mark in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,135,543 people with the first name Mark, which placed it at #21 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
#21
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1M
1,135,543 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
376.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mark
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mark is White at 85.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.4%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Mark 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 Mark at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.0% · 964,950
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 61,463
- Black or African American5.0% · 57,203
- Two or more races2.3% · 25,958
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 21,054
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4,915
Gender
Gender distribution for Mark
Out of the 1,365,265 babies given the name Mark since 1880, 99.7% 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.
Mark as a male name
- Ranked #246 in 2024
- 1,437 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1960 (58,719 births)
Mark as a female name
- Ranked #16,730 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1961 (159 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mark appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,135,541 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Mark: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mark from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 442,728 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mark 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 Mark during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marks live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Ohio recorded the most babies named Mark, while Alaska, Wyoming, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26,635 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mark
The name Mark has its origins in ancient Rome, derived from the Latin name Marcus. This name is believed to have been derived from the Roman god Mars, the god of war. Mars was a significant deity in Roman mythology, and the name Marcus was likely chosen to honor him.
The name Mark has been in use for over two millennia, with records of its use dating back to the 1st century AD. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Mark the Evangelist, one of the four Gospel writers in the New Testament of the Bible. He is believed to have lived in the first century AD and was a companion of the apostles Peter and Paul.
Another famous bearer of the name Mark was the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, who ruled from 161 to 180 AD. He was a Stoic philosopher and is remembered for his writings in the form of the philosophical work "Meditations."
During the Middle Ages, the name Mark gained popularity across Europe, particularly in England and other parts of the British Isles. One notable figure from this period was Mark Twain, the famous American author and humorist. He was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835 and is best known for his novels "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
In the world of science, the name Mark is associated with Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of Facebook. Zuckerberg was born in 1984 and is credited with revolutionizing social media and communication through the creation of the popular social networking platform.
Another prominent figure with the name Mark is Mark Hamill, the American actor best known for his portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy. He was born in 1951 and has had a successful career in film, television, and voice acting.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have borne the name Mark throughout history, highlighting its enduring popularity and significance across various cultures and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Mark
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Mark Bellhorn
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Mark Brunell
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Mark Buehrle
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Mark Christopher
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Mark Clayton
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Mark Derosa
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Mark Eaton
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Mark Frost
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Mark Gastineau
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Mark Goddard
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Mark Griffiths
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Mark Hamill
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Mark Harmon
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Mark Herman
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Mark Illsley
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Mark Joffe
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Mark Johnson
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Mark Kirk
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Mark Lester
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Mark Madsen
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Mark Martin
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Mark Mcgrath
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Mark Mclemore
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Mark Messier
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Mark Moseley
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Mark Mulder
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Mark Prior
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Mark Pryor
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Mark Quinn
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Mark Robson
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Mark Rolston
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Mark Rosman
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Mark Ruffalo
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Mark Rydell
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Mark Souder
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Mark Teixeira
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Mark Udall
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Mark Wahlberg
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Mark Waters
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Mark Wohlers
People
Mark + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mark 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
Mark: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mark?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,144,344 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mark 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 300 US residents.
Is Mark a common name?
We classify Mark as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,365,265 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mark most popular?
The single biggest year for Mark was 1960, when 58,852 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mark is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mark in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,135,543 people with the name Mark, or 375.97 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21 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 Mark 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 Mark?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mark appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,135,541 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Mark?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mark is White at 85.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.4%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Mark most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mark in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.0% (964,950 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 Mark in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mark a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Mark 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 Mark still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mark 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 Mark 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 Mark?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Mark at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.