Marwah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "place to return" or "place of refuge".
Name Census estimates that about 332 living Americans carry the first name Marwah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marwah today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marwah births was 2013 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marwah. 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 Marwah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
332
~ 1 in 1,032,393 Americans
Peak year
2013
21 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,310
Tracked since 1980
Census
Marwah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 684 people with the first name Marwah, which placed it at #16,475 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
#16,475
National first-name rank
People counted
684
684 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marwah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marwah is White at 65.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.2%) and Two or More Races (7.2%). 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 Marwah 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 Marwah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.2% · 446
- Asian and Pacific Islander22.2% · 152
- Two or more races7.2% · 49
- Black or African American5.1% · 35
- Hispanic or Latino0.3% · 2
Popularity
Marwah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marwah from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 148 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Marwah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marwah 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 Marwah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marwahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Marwah
The name Marwah has its origins in Arabic, originating from the ancient Semitic languages of the Middle East. It is derived from the Arabic root word "m-r-w," which is associated with concepts of passing, transition, and movement.
In Islamic tradition, Marwah refers to one of the two small hills in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, alongside Safa. The ritual of Sa'i, which involves walking between these two hills, is an essential part of the Islamic pilgrimage known as the Hajj. This connection to the sacred sites of Mecca has given the name Marwah a significant religious and cultural significance in the Islamic world.
The name Marwah can be found mentioned in various Islamic texts and historical records related to the Hajj rituals and the history of Mecca. One of the earliest known references to the name is in the Qur'an, where it is mentioned in the context of the ritual of Sa'i.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Marwah. One of the earliest recorded examples is Marwah bint Auf, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the first women to embrace Islam in the 7th century.
In the 9th century, Marwah al-Raqqa was a renowned Arabic poet and calligrapher from the city of Raqqa, in present-day Syria. Her works are considered part of the golden age of Arabic literature and art.
Marwah al-Saqqaf, born in the late 12th century, was a notable Islamic scholar and jurist from Yemen. She was highly respected for her knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence and her contributions to the field.
In the 19th century, Marwah al-Mallah was a prominent Palestinian educator and feminist activist. She founded one of the first schools for girls in Jerusalem and worked tirelessly to promote women's education and empowerment.
Marwah Daud Ibrahim, born in 1936, is a renowned Pakistani artist and calligrapher. She is celebrated for her intricate and innovative calligraphic works, which have been exhibited globally and are part of major museum collections.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have carried the name Marwah, which has deep roots in Arabic language and Islamic culture, with connections to sacred sites and traditions.
People
Marwah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marwah 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
Marwah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marwah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 332 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marwah 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 1,032,393 US residents.
Is Marwah a common name?
We classify Marwah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 337 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marwah most popular?
The single biggest year for Marwah was 2013, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marwah is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marwah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 684 people with the name Marwah, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,475 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 Marwah 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 Marwah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marwah appears almost entirely female. Of the 687 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Marwah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marwah is White at 65.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.2%) and Two or More Races (7.2%). 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 Marwah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marwah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.2% (446 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 Marwah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marwah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marwah 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 Marwah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marwah 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 Marwah 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 Marwah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.