Martins
A masculine given name derived from Mars, the Roman god of war.
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Martins. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Martins today is around 6 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Martins births was 2020 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Martins. 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 Martins with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Martins. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
2020
5 babies that year
Average age
6
years old
2020 SSA rank
#13,354
Tracked since 2020
Census
Martins in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 370 people with the first name Martins, which placed it at #25,584 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
#25,584
National first-name rank
People counted
370
370 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
62.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Martins
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Martins is Black at 62.4%. The next largest groups are White (24.1%) and Hispanic (12.7%). 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 Martins 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 Martins at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American62.4% · 231
- White24.1% · 89
- Hispanic or Latino12.7% · 47
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Martins: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Martins 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 Martins during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Martins
The name Martins is derived from the Roman name Martinus, which is the possessive form of Mars, the Roman god of war. It has its origins in the Latin language and is believed to have come into use during the Roman Empire, around the 1st century AD.
The name Martinus was popularized by Saint Martin of Tours, a 4th-century Roman soldier who later became a monk and was venerated as a saint after his death in 397 AD. He is known for his acts of charity, including cutting his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Martins can be found in the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written in the 8th century. It mentions a Martinus who was a bishop of the Britons.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Martins. One of the most famous was Martin Luther (1483-1546), the German monk and theologian who initiated the Protestant Reformation in 16th-century Europe.
Another well-known figure was Martin de Porres (1579-1639), a Peruvian saint known for his compassion and care for the poor and downtrodden. He was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1962.
In the field of science, Martin Keldysh (1911-1978) was a Soviet mathematician and mechanical engineer who made significant contributions to aerodynamics and astronautics. He played a crucial role in the Soviet space program.
In the arts, Martin Scorsese (born 1942) is a renowned American filmmaker known for his critically acclaimed movies such as "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," and "Goodfellas."
Finally, Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was an influential American civil rights leader who advocated for racial equality through nonviolent resistance. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his efforts.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Martins or its variants, highlighting its rich cultural and historical significance.
People
Martins + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Martins 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
Martins: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Martins?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Martins 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Martins a common name?
We classify Martins as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Martins most popular?
The single biggest year for Martins was 2020, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Martins is about 6 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Martins in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 370 people with the name Martins, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,584 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 Martins 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 Martins?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Martins leans strongly male. 321 people counted with this name were male (85.8%), compared with 53 female bearers (14.2%). 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 Martins?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Martins is Black at 62.4%. The next largest groups are White (24.1%) and Hispanic (12.7%). 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 Martins most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Martins in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.4% (231 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 Martins in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Martins a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Martins 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 Martins still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Martins 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 Martins 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 Martins?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.