Humanverse

Marcine vs Maria

American parents have registered 570,389 Marias since 1880, against 995 Marcines. Maria is still ahead, with 2,893 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Marcine 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 1936, when Marcine had 26 and Maria had 2,010.

Side by side

  Marcine Maria
Total US births 995570,389
Most in one year 2810,197
Babies in 2025 under 52,893
Estimated living today 480466,000
Median age today 7045
Peak year 19291964
Best rank 1,447th girls41st girls
Rank in 2025 unranked87th
First recorded 19161880
Girls / boys 995 / 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 Marcines alive today are over 70; half the Marias are over 45. That is 25 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: Marcine and Maria.