Humanverse

Marjean vs Mark

American parents have registered 1,366,672 Marks since 1880, against 1,558 Marjeans. Mark is still ahead, with 1,416 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Marjean against Mark, 1880 to 2025 0 15k 30k 45k 60k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Marjean Mark

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

Mark 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 1929, when Marjean had 43 and Mark had 586.

Side by side

  Marjean Mark
Total US births 1,5581,366,672
Most in one year 5558,860
Babies in 2025 under 51,416
Estimated living today 7901.1 million
Median age today 7459
Peak year 19511960
Best rank 1,254th girls6th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked244th
First recorded 19151880
Girls / boys 1,558 / 04,496 / 1,362,176

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 Marjeans alive today are over 74; half the Marks are over 59. That is 15 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: Marjean and Mark.