Humanverse

Mark vs Markie

American parents have registered 1,366,672 Marks since 1880, against 1,936 Markies. Mark is still ahead, with 1,416 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Mark Markie

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 1993, when Mark had 8,078 and Markie had 131.

Side by side

  Mark Markie
Total US births 1,366,6721,936
Most in one year 58,860150
Babies in 2025 1,41614
Estimated living today 1.1 million1,900
Median age today 5932
Peak year 19601990
Best rank 6th boys1,237th girls
Rank in 2025 244th7,491st
First recorded 18801926
Girls / boys 4,496 / 1,362,1761,600 / 336

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 Marks alive today are over 59; half the Markies are over 32. 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: Mark and Markie.