Marnee
A feminine name possibly derived from the French term "ma renée" meaning "my reborn".
Name Census estimates that about 346 living Americans carry the first name Marnee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marnee today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marnee births was 1970 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marnee. 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 Marnee with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
346
~ 1 in 990,619 Americans
Peak year
1970
25 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,765
Tracked since 1944
Census
Marnee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 442 people with the first name Marnee, which placed it at #22,485 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
#22,485
National first-name rank
People counted
442
442 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marnee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marnee is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Hispanic (4.8%). 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 Marnee 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 Marnee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.7% · 370
- Black or African American6.3% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 21
- Two or more races3.2% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 4
Popularity
Marnee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marnee from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 165 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marnee 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 Marnee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marnees live
Origin
Meaning and history of Marnee
The name Marnee is believed to have its origins in the Scottish Gaelic language, although its precise etymology is uncertain. It is thought to be a feminine form of the name Marn, which itself may be derived from the Old Norse word "mörn," meaning "morning" or "dawn."
One theory suggests that Marnee is a diminutive or pet form of the name Marion, which has French roots and was introduced to Scotland during the Norman conquest. The name Marion is derived from the Latin name Marinus, meaning "of the sea."
Historical records of the name Marnee are scarce, but it is known to have been used in Scotland as early as the 16th century. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is Marnee Wallace, a Scottish noblewoman who lived in the late 1500s.
In the 17th century, a notable figure named Marnee Mackintosh was a prominent member of the Clan Mackintosh, a Highland Scottish clan. She was known for her involvement in the Jacobite uprisings of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Another historical figure with the name Marnee was Marnee MacGregor, a Scottish poet and songwriter who lived in the late 18th century. She is credited with composing several traditional Scottish ballads that have endured through the centuries.
In the 19th century, Marnee Buchanan was a Scottish philanthropist and social reformer who worked tirelessly to improve the living conditions of the poor in Glasgow. Her efforts led to the establishment of several charitable organizations and the construction of affordable housing units.
Marnee Campbell, born in 1865, was a Scottish artist renowned for her landscape paintings, which captured the rugged beauty of the Scottish Highlands. Her works were widely exhibited and are now part of several prestigious art collections around the world.
While the name Marnee has Scottish roots, it has been adopted and used in various cultures and regions over time, albeit to a lesser extent compared to its more common variations, such as Marion or Marnie.
People
Marnee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marnee 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
Marnee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marnee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 346 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marnee 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 990,619 US residents.
Is Marnee a common name?
We classify Marnee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 409 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marnee most popular?
The single biggest year for Marnee was 1970, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marnee is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marnee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 442 people with the name Marnee, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,485 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 Marnee 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 Marnee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marnee appears almost entirely female. Of the 445 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Marnee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marnee is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Hispanic (4.8%). 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 Marnee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marnee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.7% (370 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 Marnee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marnee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marnee 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 Marnee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marnee 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 Marnee 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 Americans are named Marnee?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.