Humanverse

Maria vs Marquitta

American parents have registered 570,389 Marias since 1880, against 1,183 Marquittas. Maria is still ahead, with 2,893 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Maria Marquitta

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 1984, when Maria had 6,222 and Marquitta had 128.

Side by side

  Maria Marquitta
Total US births 570,3891,183
Most in one year 10,197138
Babies in 2025 2,893under 5
Estimated living today 466,0001,100
Median age today 4541
Peak year 19641983
Best rank 41st girls1,019th girls
Rank in 2025 87thunranked
First recorded 18801938
Girls / boys 566,111 / 4,2781,183 / 0

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 Marquittas are over 41. That is 4 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 Marquitta.