Marko last name popularity, history, and meaning

Find out how popular the last name Marko is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Marko.

Meaning of Marko

A Croatian and Slovenian surname derived from the given name Marko, a form of Mark, meaning "warlike."

Marko, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Marko surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Marko in America

Marko is the 11614th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Marko surname appeared 2,701 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Marko.

We can also compare 2010 data for Marko to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 11614 11026 5.19%
Count 2,701 2,645 2.10%
Proportion per 100k 0.92 0.98 -6.32%

The history of the last name Marko

The surname Marko has its origins in the Slavic region of Central and Eastern Europe. It is believed to have derived from the Latin name Marcus, which was a popular name among the ancient Romans. The earliest recorded use of the surname Marko dates back to the 12th century in the Kingdom of Croatia.

During the Middle Ages, the name Marko was commonly found in various regions of the Balkans, particularly in areas that were part of the medieval Serbian and Bulgarian empires. It was often used as a personal name, and later adopted as a hereditary surname by families in these regions.

One of the earliest documented references to the surname Marko can be found in the Dubrovnik Archives, which contains records of a nobleman named Marko Gundulić, who lived in the 15th century. Another notable figure was Marko Marulić (1450-1524), a Croatian poet and scholar who is considered one of the founders of Renaissance literature in Croatia.

In the 16th century, the surname Marko began to spread beyond the Balkans as a result of migration and trade. It can be found in historical records from various parts of Europe, including Germany, Poland, and Russia.

One notable bearer of the surname Marko was Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869), the British physician and philologist who is best known for compiling the famous Roget's Thesaurus. Another was Marko Vovchok (1833-1907), a Ukrainian writer and feminist who was one of the founders of modern Ukrainian literature.

In the 20th century, the surname Marko gained further prominence with figures such as Marko Čudić (1901-1963), a Croatian sculptor and artist, and Marko Marulić (1914-1992), a prominent Croatian writer and poet.

The surname Marko has also been associated with various place names and geographical locations throughout Central and Eastern Europe, such as the town of Marko in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the village of Markovac in Croatia.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Marko

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Marko.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

  1. White only
  2. Black only
  3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
  4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
  5. Hispanic
  6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Marko was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 95.74% 2,586
Non-Hispanic Black Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 0.56% 15
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 1.07% 29
Hispanic Origin 1.96% 53

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Marko has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 95.74% 95.61% 0.14%
Black (S)% 0.53% (S)%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.56% 0.45% 21.78%
American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% 0.19% (S)%
Two or More Races 1.07% 1.32% -20.92%
Hispanic 1.96% 1.89% 3.64%

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Marko was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Marko, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!

"Marko last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on November 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/marko-surname-popularity/.

"Marko last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/marko-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 November, 2024

Marko last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/marko-surname-popularity/.

Search for a name

Search for a first or last name to learn more about its origin, meaning, and more.

Simple as that.