Maro
A Basque given name meaning "bitter".
Name Census estimates that about 60 living Americans carry the first name Maro. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Maro today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maro births was 1981 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maro. 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 Maro with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Maro. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
60
~ 1 in 5,712,572 Americans
Peak year
1981
8 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,462
Tracked since 1917
Census
Maro in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 716 people with the first name Maro, which placed it at #15,916 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
#15,916
National first-name rank
People counted
716
716 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maro
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maro is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.6%) and Black (8.9%). 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 Maro 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 Maro at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.4% · 397
- Hispanic or Latino28.6% · 205
- Black or African American8.9% · 64
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.5% · 32
- Two or more races2.2% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Popularity
Maro: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maro from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 36 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Maro remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maro 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 Maro during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maro
The name Maro has its origins in ancient Rome and the Latin language. It is believed to be derived from the Latin word "marus," which means "male" or "masculine." Alternatively, some scholars suggest that it may be a shortened form of the Roman name "Marius," which itself is derived from the Latin word "mas," meaning "male."
In ancient Roman history, the name Maro appears to have been in use, although it was not a particularly common name. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Publius Vergilius Maro, better known as Virgil, the renowned Roman poet who lived from 70 BC to 19 BC. Virgil's masterpiece, the Aeneid, is considered one of the greatest works of Latin literature and has had a profound influence on Western literature and culture.
Another notable figure from antiquity with the name Maro was Marcus Valerius Martialis, a Roman poet who lived from around 40 AD to 104 AD. He is best known for his satirical and often bawdy epigrams, which provide a fascinating glimpse into the daily life and social mores of ancient Rome.
In the Middle Ages, the name Maro seems to have fallen out of widespread use, although it may have persisted in some regions or among certain families. It resurfaced in the Renaissance period, particularly in Italy, where it was sometimes used as a poetic or literary name, perhaps in homage to the great Roman poet Virgil.
One notable individual from this period was Maro Beneventano, an Italian Renaissance humanist and poet who lived from around 1490 to 1546. He was a professor of Greek and Latin literature and the author of several works, including a collection of poems titled "Sylvae."
In more recent times, the name Maro has been used by various individuals around the world, although it remains relatively uncommon. One notable bearer of the name was Maro Semenčič, a Slovenian painter and graphic artist who lived from 1928 to 1990. His works, which often explored themes of nature and the human condition, were influential in the development of Slovenian modern art.
Another individual with the name Maro was Maro Nakas, a Greek-American businessman and philanthropist who lived from 1922 to 2010. He was the founder of the Maro Companies, a successful real estate development firm, and was also known for his philanthropic efforts in supporting education and cultural initiatives in both the United States and Greece.
People
Maro + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maro 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
Maro: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maro?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 60 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maro 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 5,712,572 US residents.
Is Maro a common name?
We classify Maro as "Very Rare". It ranks above 57.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 75 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maro most popular?
The single biggest year for Maro was 1981, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maro is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maro in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 716 people with the name Maro, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,916 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 Maro 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 Maro?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Maro on both sides of the split. Of the 715 people counted with this name, 340 were male (47.6%) and 375 were female (52.4%). 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 Maro?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maro is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.6%) and Black (8.9%). 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 Maro most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maro in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.4% (397 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 Maro in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maro a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maro 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 Maro still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maro 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 Maro 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 Maro?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Maro, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.