Humanverse

Marcanthony vs Maria

American parents have registered 570,389 Marias since 1880, against 1,399 Marcanthonys. Maria is still ahead, with 2,893 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Marcanthony against Maria, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Marcanthony Maria

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

Maria 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 2000, when Marcanthony had 137 and Maria had 6,873.

Side by side

  Marcanthony Maria
Total US births 1,399570,389
Most in one year 13710,197
Babies in 2025 112,893
Estimated living today 1,400466,000
Median age today 2545
Peak year 20001964
Best rank 1,048th boys41st girls
Rank in 2025 7,194th87th
First recorded 19711880
Girls / boys 0 / 1,399566,111 / 4,278

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 Marias alive today are over 45; half the Marcanthonys are over 25. That is 20 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: Marcanthony and Maria.