Marye
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly meaning "bitter" or "beloved".
Name Census estimates that about 439 living Americans carry the first name Marye. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marye today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marye births was 1920 (47 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marye. 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
- • The typical person named Marye is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Maryes were born before 1970.
People living today
439
~ 1 in 780,762 Americans
Peak year
1920
47 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2019 SSA rank
#17,133
Tracked since 1890
Census
Marye in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 671 people with the first name Marye, which placed it at #16,695 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
#16,695
National first-name rank
People counted
671
671 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marye
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marye is White at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Black (19.8%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Marye 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 Marye at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.8% · 482
- Black or African American19.8% · 133
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 29
- Two or more races2.7% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Popularity
Marye: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marye from the 1890s through to the 2010s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 372 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marye 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 Marye during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maryes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Texas, Tennessee, California recorded the most babies named Marye, while Oklahoma, Ohio, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marye
The given name Marye has its origins in the Latin name Maria, which was derived from the ancient Hebrew name Miryam. This name can be traced back to the 1st century BCE and is believed to have originated in the Judean Desert region of ancient Palestine.
Marye is a variant spelling of the name Mary, which is the English form of the Latin name Maria. The name Maria itself is a feminine form of the Latin name Marius, which means "male" or "masculine." The name Miryam is thought to be derived from the Hebrew words "mar" meaning "bitter" or "beloved," and "yam" meaning "sea."
The name Mary is mentioned numerous times in the Christian New Testament, as it was the name of the mother of Jesus Christ. This association with the Virgin Mary has contributed to the name's widespread popularity among Christians throughout history. The name was also borne by several notable figures in early Christianity, such as Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Marye can be found in the 12th century, when a nun named Marye de Wittun was mentioned in the records of the Benedictine abbey of St. Hilda in Middlesbrough, England.
Several notable historical figures have borne the name Marye, including Marye Beton (c. 1542-1598), a Scottish noble and lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots; Marye Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights; Marye Shelley (1797-1851), the English novelist best known for her Gothic novel "Frankenstein"; Marye Anning (1799-1847), an English fossil collector and paleontologist; and Marye Curie (1867-1934), the renowned Polish-born physicist and chemist, who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
Throughout history, the name Marye has been a popular choice for girls in various cultures and societies, reflecting its deep roots in religious and cultural traditions.
People
Marye + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marye 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
Marye: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marye?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 439 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marye 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 780,762 US residents.
Is Marye a common name?
We classify Marye as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,557 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marye most popular?
The single biggest year for Marye was 1920, when 47 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marye is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marye in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 671 people with the name Marye, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,695 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 Marye 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 Marye?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marye leans strongly female. 665 people counted with this name were female (98.1%), compared with 13 male bearers (1.9%). 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 Marye?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marye is White at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Black (19.8%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Marye most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marye in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.8% (482 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 Marye in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marye a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marye 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 Marye still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marye 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 Marye 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 common is the name Marye?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.