Mark

1,135,541 people in America carry this name — ranked #21 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it MAHRK

1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

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

  • People counted 1,135,541 2020 Census
  • Per 100,000 376.0 about 1 in 292 people

The meaning and origin of Mark

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.

Mark through the years

1,359,586 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1960, with 58,864 of them.

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

Most people carrying it were born in the 1960s. 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 for Mark

One syllable, so a longer middle name gives the whole a rhythm.

Better avoided

  • Mark Michael — same opening
  • Mark Christopher — runs together
  • Mark Matthew — 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.

Going quiet

Mark has more than halved in three decades. The people carrying it belong mostly to the Baby Boomers.

Is Mark used for boys or for girls?

99.9% men
1,134 women

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

The likeliest 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.

Who carries it today

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 85.0%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 5.0%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 5.4%
  • Two or more races — 2.3%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 1.9%

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 elsewhere

  • Mart 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
  • 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.

Spellings of Mark

Mark is how 28% of them spell it — 4,014,896 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.

Try it Full-Name Estimator

Add a surname and see how many Americans carry the two together.

Open Full-Name Estimator 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