Humanverse

Marcille vs Maria

American parents have registered 570,389 Marias since 1880, against 651 Marcilles. Maria is still ahead, with 2,893 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Marcille 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 1923, when Marcille had 34 and Maria had 2,021.

Side by side

  Marcille Maria
Total US births 651570,389
Most in one year 3410,197
Babies in 2025 52,893
Estimated living today 190466,000
Median age today 7545
Peak year 19231964
Best rank 1,350th girls41st girls
Rank in 2025 14,942nd87th
First recorded 19131880
Girls / boys 651 / 0566,111 / 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 Marcilles alive today are over 75; half the Marias are over 45. That is 30 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: Marcille and Maria.