Mario

213,074 people in America carry this name — ranked #261 of 923.

Carried mostly by Generation X.

Say it MAH ree oh

3 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

M AA1 R IY0 OW0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 213,074 2020 Census
  • Per 100,000 70.5 about 1 in 1,556 people
  • As a surname 759 ranked #32,481 the other way round

The meaning and origin of Mario

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.

How often Mario has been given

148,196 babies were given this name since 1897. The busiest year was 1980, with 2,975 of them.

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.

Middle names that fit Mario

Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.

Better avoided

  • Mario Michael — same opening
  • Mario Matthew — same opening
  • Mario 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.

Is Mario a boy's or a girl's name?

99.4% men
1,382 women

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

Where the name Mario is most common in the US

In New Mexico the name is given 2.7 times as often as it is across the country.

  • New Mexico ×2.7
  • Arizona ×2.2
  • Texas ×2.2
  • California ×2.2
  • Nevada ×1.4

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 Mario is spelled

Mario is how 5.5% of them spell it — 3,902,020 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.

The same name abroad

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

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.

Who carries it today

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 12.2%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 7.6%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 77.0%
  • Two or more races — 0.7%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 2.1%

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.

Names with the same rhythm as Mario

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 3 syllables, stress on the first

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

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One of those is not in the census file.

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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