Humanverse

Mark vs Marlisa

American parents have registered 1,366,672 Marks since 1880, against 796 Marlisas. Mark is still ahead, with 1,416 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Mark Marlisa

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 2021, when Mark had 1,408 and Marlisa had 7.

Side by side

  Mark Marlisa
Total US births 1,366,672796
Most in one year 58,86028
Babies in 2025 1,416under 5
Estimated living today 1.1 million750
Median age today 5943
Peak year 19601989
Best rank 6th boys3,566th girls
Rank in 2025 244thunranked
First recorded 18801957
Girls / boys 4,496 / 1,362,176796 / 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 Marks alive today are over 59; half the Marlisas are over 43. That is 16 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 Marlisa.