Humanverse

Maria vs Marshaun

American parents have registered 570,389 Marias since 1880, against 940 Marshauns. Maria is still ahead, with 2,893 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Maria Marshaun

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 2009, when Maria had 4,157 and Marshaun had 51.

Side by side

  Maria Marshaun
Total US births 570,389940
Most in one year 10,19751
Babies in 2025 2,89315
Estimated living today 466,000920
Median age today 4518
Peak year 19642009
Best rank 41st girls2,486th boys
Rank in 2025 87th5,861st
First recorded 18801970
Girls / boys 566,111 / 4,2780 / 940

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 Marshauns are over 18. That is 27 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 Marshaun.