The story in the numbers

141,726 girls have been named Marian in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1924, with 4,197 births — 0.34% of all girls recorded that year.

The name has all but left use: 209 births in 2024, against 4,197 at the peak.

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1930, and the 1920s alone account for 28%. It has spent 114 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 23 of them in the top 100.

It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 1,351 boys have also been given it, 0.94% of the total.

Rank among girls, year by year

By decade

Decade

girls named Marian

631

2,168

4,531

22,158

38,978

23,906

16,041

15,340

6,768

2,481

1,989

1,770

2,070

1,925

970

In 1924, its biggest year

Marian was the 64th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1924 were Mary, Dorothy, Helen, Betty and Margaret. See all of 1924.

Names that rose and fell with Marian

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.