Markeith
Of Old French origin meaning "horseman" or "knight".
Name Census estimates that about 2,066 living Americans carry the first name Markeith. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Markeith today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Markeith births was 1990 (87 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Markeith. 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.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 165,902 Americans
Peak year
1990
87 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,804
Tracked since 1964
Census
Markeith in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,404 people with the first name Markeith, which placed it at #9,762 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
#9,762
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,404 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
91.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Markeith
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Markeith is Black at 91.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.5%) and Hispanic (2.9%). 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 Markeith 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 Markeith at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American91.2% · 1,281
- Two or more races3.5% · 49
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 41
- White2.0% · 28
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 2
Popularity
Markeith: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Markeith from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 597 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Markeith 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 Markeith during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Markeiths live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. Texas, Alabama, Florida recorded the most babies named Markeith, while Virginia, South Carolina, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 32 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Markeith
The name Markeith is a relatively modern amalgamation of the more traditional names Mark and Keith. The first component, Mark, finds its origins in the ancient Roman praenomen Marcus, derived from the word "mars" meaning "consecrated to the god Mars". Mark was a common name among early Christians, borne by several biblical figures including the Evangelist who authored the second Gospel.
Keith, on the other hand, traces its roots back to the Gaelic "Caith" meaning "a compact or covenant". It was a popular name among the Scots and emerged as a surname before transitioning into a masculine given name. The spelling variations of Keith, such as Keeth and Keyth, were common in medieval times.
While the exact origins of the amalgamated name Markeith are unclear, it likely emerged as a creative fusion of these two separate names in the late 20th century. One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Markeith Loyd, an American basketball player born in 1975.
Among the historical figures who bore the names that comprise Markeith are Saint Mark the Evangelist, the author of the Gospel of Mark, who lived in the 1st century AD. Keith Jarrett, the influential American jazz pianist and composer, was born in 1945 and has had a prolific career spanning over six decades.
Markeith Cummings, an American basketball player, was born in 1992 and played for several teams in the NBA G League and overseas. Markeith Loyd, mentioned earlier, was a collegiate basketball star at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock in the mid-1990s and later played professionally in Europe.
Another notable figure is Markeith Russell, an American football player born in 1980, who played defensive tackle in the NFL for teams like the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions in the early 2000s.
People
Markeith + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Markeith 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
Markeith: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Markeith?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,066 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Markeith 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 165,902 US residents.
Is Markeith a common name?
We classify Markeith as "Rare". It ranks above 93.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,142 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Markeith most popular?
The single biggest year for Markeith was 1990, when 87 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Markeith is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Markeith in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,404 people with the name Markeith, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,762 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 Markeith 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 Markeith?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Markeith appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,407 people counted with this name, 99.0% 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 Markeith?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Markeith is Black at 91.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.5%) and Hispanic (2.9%). 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 Markeith most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Markeith in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.2% (1,281 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 Markeith in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Markeith a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Markeith 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 Markeith still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Markeith 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 Markeith 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 have the name Markeith?
Find out how many Americans are named Markeith on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.