Humanverse

Marbella vs Mark

American parents have registered 1,366,672 Marks since 1880, against 2,467 Marbellas. Mark is still ahead, with 1,416 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Marbella against Mark, 1880 to 2025 0 15k 30k 45k 60k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Marbella Mark

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Mark has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Marbella had 162 and Mark had 1,416.

Side by side

  Marbella Mark
Total US births 2,4671,366,672
Most in one year 16258,860
Babies in 2025 1621,416
Estimated living today 2,4001.1 million
Median age today 1459
Peak year 20251960
Best rank 1,359th girls6th boys
Rank in 2025 1,359th244th
First recorded 19711880
Girls / boys 2,467 / 04,496 / 1,362,176

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Marks alive today are over 59; half the Marbellas are over 14. That is 45 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Marbella and Mark.