Humanverse

Maria vs Markeith

American parents have registered 570,389 Marias since 1880, against 2,148 Markeiths. Maria is still ahead, with 2,893 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Maria Markeith

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 1989, when Maria had 6,456 and Markeith had 83.

Side by side

  Maria Markeith
Total US births 570,3892,148
Most in one year 10,19787
Babies in 2025 2,8936
Estimated living today 466,0002,100
Median age today 4533
Peak year 19641990
Best rank 41st girls1,166th boys
Rank in 2025 87th10,695th
First recorded 18801964
Girls / boys 566,111 / 4,2780 / 2,148

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 Markeiths are over 33. That is 12 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: Maria and Markeith.