Maurene
French feminine form of Maurice meaning "dark" or "dark-skinned".
Name Census estimates that about 238 living Americans carry the first name Maurene. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maurene today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maurene births was 1954 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maurene. 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 Maurene is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Maurenes were born before 1965.
People living today
238
~ 1 in 1,440,144 Americans
Peak year
1954
20 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
1981 SSA rank
#9,885
Tracked since 1904
Census
Maurene in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 404 people with the first name Maurene, which placed it at #24,004 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
#24,004
National first-name rank
People counted
404
404 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maurene
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maurene is White at 80.4%. The next largest groups are Black (9.2%) 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 Maurene 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 Maurene at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.4% · 325
- Black or African American9.2% · 37
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 15
- Two or more races1.7% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 4
Popularity
Maurene: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maurene from the 1900s through to the 1980s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 124 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maurene 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 Maurene during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maurenes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Maurene
The name Maurene is believed to have originated from the French language. It is a variant of the more common name Maureen, which itself is derived from the ancient Celtic name Muire or Máire. This name can be traced back to the Old Irish Muiriu, meaning "great" or "vast."
In the Middle Ages, the name Maurene was particularly popular in regions of France, such as Normandy and Brittany, where Celtic influence was strong. It is possible that the name was brought to these areas by Britons or Gaels who fled the Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Maurene can be found in a 12th-century French manuscript, where it was used to refer to a noblewoman from the region of Anjou. This suggests that the name was already in use by the French aristocracy during the High Middle Ages.
Throughout the centuries, several notable individuals have borne the name Maurene. One of the most famous was Maurene Duvall (1668-1745), a French courtier and spy who played a significant role in the intrigue and espionage of the court of King Louis XIV. Another notable bearer of the name was Maurene Dubois (1897-1987), a French sculptor and ceramist known for her innovative techniques and distinctive style.
In the realm of literature, the name Maurene is associated with the character of Maurene Avery, a protagonist in the 19th-century novel "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" by Anne Brontë. This fictional character helped to popularize the name in English-speaking countries.
Other historical figures with the name Maurene include Maurene Descartes (1596-1650), a French philosopher and mathematician who was a distant relative of the famous René Descartes, and Maurene Leclerc (1722-1801), a French botanist and explorer who made significant contributions to the study of plant life in the Caribbean region.
People
Maurene + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maurene 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
Maurene: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maurene?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 238 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maurene 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 1,440,144 US residents.
Is Maurene a common name?
We classify Maurene as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 635 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maurene most popular?
The single biggest year for Maurene was 1954, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maurene is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maurene in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 404 people with the name Maurene, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,004 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 Maurene 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 Maurene?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maurene appears almost entirely female. Of the 409 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 Maurene?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maurene is White at 80.4%. The next largest groups are Black (9.2%) 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 Maurene most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maurene in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.4% (325 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 Maurene in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maurene a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maurene 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 Maurene still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maurene 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 Maurene 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 Maurene?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Maurene on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.