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Marcellous vs Marie

American parents have registered 542,270 Maries since 1880, against 1,062 Marcellouses. Marie is still ahead, with 474 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Marcellous against Marie, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Marcellous Marie

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

Marie 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 2019, when Marcellous had 21 and Marie had 450.

Side by side

  Marcellous Marie
Total US births 1,062542,270
Most in one year 3612,774
Babies in 2025 13474
Estimated living today 940179,000
Median age today 3066
Peak year 19931920
Best rank 2,162nd boys13th girls
Rank in 2025 6,446th617th
First recorded 19151880
Girls / boys 0 / 1,062540,077 / 2,193

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 Maries alive today are over 66; half the Marcellouses are over 30. That is 36 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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