Marteen
Variant spelling of the Dutch name Maarten, meaning "warlike" or "dedicated to Mars".
Name Census estimates that about 32 living Americans carry the first name Marteen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marteen today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marteen births was 1981 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marteen. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Marteen. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
32
~ 1 in 10,711,073 Americans
Peak year
1981
17 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
1982 SSA rank
#5,413
Tracked since 1923
Census
Marteen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 177 people with the first name Marteen, which placed it at #41,393 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
#41,393
National first-name rank
People counted
177
177 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
39.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marteen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marteen is White at 39.5%. The next largest groups are Black (32.2%) and Hispanic (22.0%). 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 Marteen 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 Marteen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White39.5% · 70
- Black or African American32.2% · 57
- Hispanic or Latino22.0% · 39
- Two or more races3.4% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.3% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 1
Popularity
Marteen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marteen from the 1920s through to the 1980s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 30 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
Marteen 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 Marteen 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 Marteen
The name Marteen has its origins in the ancient Latin language and is derived from the name Martinus, which is itself derived from the Roman god of war, Mars. The earliest known uses of the name Martinus date back to the 4th century AD, when it was given to several early Christian saints and martyrs.
In the Middle Ages, the name Martinus underwent various spelling changes and regional variations, with the form Marteen emerging as a common spelling in parts of Western Europe, particularly in the Netherlands and Germany. This variant spelling likely arose as a result of the influence of local dialects and language evolution over time.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Marteen can be found in the historical records of the city of Amsterdam, where a merchant named Marteen van der Meer is mentioned in documents from the late 15th century. Another notable early bearer of the name was Marteen Tromp, a famous Dutch admiral who lived from 1598 to 1653 and played a significant role in the Dutch Golden Age.
In the realm of religion, the name Marteen has been associated with several notable figures throughout history. One of the most famous was Saint Martin of Tours, a 4th-century bishop who is renowned for his acts of charity and is celebrated as the patron saint of soldiers, beggars, and the poor. Another important figure was Martin Luther, the German monk and theologian who initiated the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.
Beyond the religious and historical realms, the name Marteen has also been borne by several prominent artists and writers. One notable example is the Dutch painter Marteen de Vos, who lived from 1532 to 1603 and was known for his religious and allegorical paintings. Another was the French writer and philosopher Marteen du Gard, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1937 for his multi-volume novel series "Les Thibault."
Other notable individuals with the name Marteen include Marteen van Buren, the 8th President of the United States (1782-1862), and Marteen Brodeur, a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played for the New Jersey Devils from 1991 to 2015 and is considered one of the greatest goaltenders in NHL history.
People
Marteen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marteen 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
Marteen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marteen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 32 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marteen 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 10,711,073 US residents.
Is Marteen a common name?
We classify Marteen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 47.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 40 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marteen most popular?
The single biggest year for Marteen was 1981, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marteen is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marteen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 177 people with the name Marteen, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #41,393 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 Marteen 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 Marteen?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Marteen on both sides of the split. Of the 172 people counted with this name, 57 were male (33.1%) and 115 were female (66.9%). 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 Marteen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marteen is White at 39.5%. The next largest groups are Black (32.2%) and Hispanic (22.0%). 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 Marteen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marteen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.5% (70 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 Marteen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marteen a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marteen 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 Marteen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marteen 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 Marteen 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 are named Marteen?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.