Maryse
A French feminine name meaning "bitter" or "of the sea".
Name Census estimates that about 119 living Americans carry the first name Maryse. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maryse today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maryse births was 2010 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maryse. 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.
People living today
119
~ 1 in 2,880,289 Americans
Peak year
2010
13 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2023 SSA rank
#16,747
Tracked since 1952
Census
Maryse in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,152 people with the first name Maryse, which placed it at #11,247 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
#11,247
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,152 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
54.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maryse
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maryse is Black at 54.8%. The next largest groups are White (36.5%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Maryse 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 Maryse at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American54.8% · 631
- White36.5% · 421
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 46
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 32
- Two or more races1.8% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Maryse: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maryse from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 34 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Maryse remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maryse 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 Maryse during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maryses live
Origin
Meaning and history of Maryse
The name Maryse is derived from the French name Marie, which itself has its roots in the ancient Hebrew name Miryam or Miriam. It is believed to have originated in the biblical era, with the name Miriam appearing in the Old Testament as the name of the sister of Moses and Aaron.
Miriam is thought to be derived from the Hebrew word "mar" meaning "bitter" or "beloved", with the element "yah" referring to the Hebrew name of God. The name Maryse is a French variation of the name Marie, which was widely popularized throughout Europe during the Middle Ages due to the cult of the Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Maryse can be found in French literature from the 13th century. It was used as a character name in the renowned medieval romance "Roman de la Rose" by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Maryse. One of the earliest was Maryse Choisy (1637-1724), a French novelist and playwright who was a member of the Académie des Ricovrati in Padua, Italy.
Another notable figure was Maryse Bastié (1898-1952), a French aviator and World War II resistance fighter who was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'Honneur for her bravery during the war.
In the realm of literature, Maryse Condé (born 1937) is a renowned French novelist and playwright from Guadeloupe who has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in 2018.
In the world of sports, Maryse Ouellet (born 1983) is a Canadian professional wrestler and former model, best known for her time with WWE, where she was a two-time Divas Champion.
Finally, Maryse Éwanjé-Épée (born 1953) is a French fashion designer and entrepreneur who founded the luxury fashion brand Maison Éwanjé-Épée in Paris in the 1980s.
People
Maryse + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maryse 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
Maryse: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maryse?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 119 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maryse 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 2,880,289 US residents.
Is Maryse a common name?
We classify Maryse as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 127 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maryse most popular?
The single biggest year for Maryse was 2010, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maryse is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maryse in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,152 people with the name Maryse, or 0.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,247 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 Maryse 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 Maryse?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maryse appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,149 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Maryse?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maryse is Black at 54.8%. The next largest groups are White (36.5%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Maryse most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Maryse in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.8% (631 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 Maryse in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maryse a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maryse 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 Maryse still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maryse 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 Maryse 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 Maryse?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Maryse on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.