Marlowe
An English diminutive of the old Germanic name Mærwine meaning "famous friend".
Name Census estimates that about 5,189 living Americans carry the first name Marlowe. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 72.2% of registrations being female. The average person named Marlowe today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marlowe births was 2024 (523 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marlowe. 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 Marlowe with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Marlowe started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Marlowe is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
5.2K
~ 1 in 66,054 Americans
Peak year
2024
523 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#624
Tracked since 1912
Census
Marlowe in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,325 people with the first name Marlowe, which placed it at #5,225 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
#5,225
National first-name rank
People counted
3.3K
3,325 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marlowe
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marlowe is White at 69.3%. The next largest groups are Black (11.5%) and Hispanic (7.3%). 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 Marlowe 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 Marlowe at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.3% · 2,304
- Black or African American11.5% · 382
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 243
- Two or more races7.3% · 243
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.2% · 140
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Marlowe
Marlowe is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 5,854 total registrations, 1,626 (27.8%) were male and 4,228 (72.2%) were female.
Marlowe as a male name
- Ranked #2,768 in 2024
- 47 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (47 births)
Marlowe as a female name
- Ranked #624 in 2024
- 476 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (476 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Marlowe on both sides of the split. Of the 3,321 people counted with this name, 885 were male (26.6%) and 2,436 were female (73.4%).
Popularity
Marlowe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marlowe from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,051 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marlowe 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 Marlowe during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marlowes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Marlowe, while New Hampshire, Louisiana, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 82 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marlowe
The name Marlowe is an English masculine given name with origins dating back to the late Middle Ages. It is believed to have derived from the Old English words "mere" meaning "a marsh" and "hlaw" meaning "a hill" or "small mound". This suggests that Marlowe may have originally referred to a person living near a marsh or wetland area on a hill.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Marlowe can be found in the 14th century, appearing as "Marlou" in the Calender of Wills from 1363. During this time period, spelling variations such as "Marlow" and "Marloe" were also commonplace. The more standardized spelling of "Marlowe" emerged in the late 16th century.
Historically, the name Marlowe has been associated with several notable figures. One of the most famous was Christopher Marlowe, an English playwright, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era, born in 1564 and tragically killed in 1593 at the young age of 29. His works, including "The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus" and "Tamburlaine the Great", significantly influenced the development of English literature and the dramatic arts.
Another prominent individual bearing the name Marlowe was Julia Marlowe, an English-American actress born Sarah Hodgdon Terhune in 1865. She gained fame for her performances in Shakespearean plays and became one of the most respected and admired stage actresses of her time, before her death in 1950.
In the 20th century, the name Marlowe was also carried by the American novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler, whose birth name was Raymond Thornton Chandler (1888-1959). He is renowned for his influential works of detective fiction, including "The Big Sleep" and "The Long Goodbye", which helped shape the genre of hardboiled crime fiction.
Another notable Marlowe was Philip Marlowe, the iconic private investigator created by writer Raymond Chandler and featured in several of his novels and short stories. Although a fictional character, Philip Marlowe became a cultural icon and one of the most famous representations of the hard-boiled detective archetype in literature.
Lastly, Marlowe was also the first name of Marlowe Alter Marx, an American businessman and entrepreneur born in 1919. He co-founded the successful toy company Stride Rite Corporation, which specialized in children's footwear and became a leading brand in the United States.
People
Marlowe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marlowe 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
Marlowe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marlowe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,189 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marlowe 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 66,054 US residents.
Is Marlowe a common name?
We classify Marlowe as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,854 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marlowe most popular?
The single biggest year for Marlowe was 2024, when 523 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marlowe is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marlowe in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,325 people with the name Marlowe, or 1.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,225 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 Marlowe 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 Marlowe?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Marlowe on both sides of the split. Of the 3,321 people counted with this name, 885 were male (26.6%) and 2,436 were female (73.4%). 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 Marlowe?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marlowe is White at 69.3%. The next largest groups are Black (11.5%) and Hispanic (7.3%). 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 Marlowe most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marlowe in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.3% (2,304 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 Marlowe in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marlowe a female name?
Yes, 72.2% of people registered as Marlowe 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 Marlowe still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marlowe 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 Marlowe 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 Marlowe?
You can see how many Americans are named Marlowe on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.