Marcus

184,054 people in America carry this name — ranked #301 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it MAHR kuhs

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

M AA1 R K AH0 S — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 184,054 2020 Census
  • Per 100,000 60.9 about 1 in 1,801 people
  • As a surname 16,763 ranked #2,096 the other way round

The meaning and origin of Marcus

Latin in origin, reading literally as “of Mars”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Marcus through the years

235,661 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1984, with 6,059 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80s 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1980s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

What goes well after Marcus

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Marcus Michael — same opening
  • Marcus Matthew — same opening
  • Marcus Mark — same opening

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

Boys or girls: who is called Marcus?

99.8% men
395 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Where the name Marcus is most common in the US

In the District of Columbia the name is given 2.8 times as often as it is across the country.

  • the District of Columbia ×2.8
  • Mississippi ×2.7
  • Alabama ×1.9
  • Arkansas ×1.7
  • Georgia ×1.6

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

How to spell Marcus

Marcus is how 7.7% of them spell it — 2,376,534 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Who has this name today

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 34.8%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 41.2%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 13.9%
  • Two or more races — 6.5%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 2.4%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 1.1%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

The same name abroad

  • Mart Esth
  • Mark Eng.|Russ.|Esth
  • Marc French
  • Marko Wall
  • Mario Italian
  • Marek Polish
  • Marco Italian
  • Marca German
  • Mertin Bav
  • Mertil German
  • Marzia Italian
  • Martyn English
  • Martin Fr.|Russ.|Eng.|Port.|Slov
  • Martia Swiss

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Names with the same rhythm as Marcus

Ends on the same sound

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

The most common full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Try it How Rare Is It?

Where this name sits between household and almost unheard of.

Common

  • People counted184,054
  • Rank#301
  • Roughly1 in 1,801 people

Open the full entry

Open How Rare Is It? on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Latin origin