Marelin
A feminine name with unknown origin and disputed meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 263 living Americans carry the first name Marelin. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marelin today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marelin births was 2008 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marelin. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
263
~ 1 in 1,303,248 Americans
Peak year
2008
33 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2022 SSA rank
#14,669
Tracked since 1969
Census
Marelin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 333 people with the first name Marelin, which placed it at #27,468 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#27,468
National first-name rank
People counted
333
333 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
93.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marelin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marelin is Hispanic at 93.7%. The next largest groups are White (3.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Marelin described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Marelin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino93.7% · 312
- White3.0% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 5
- Two or more races1.2% · 4
- Black or African American0.6% · 2
Popularity
Marelin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marelin from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 137 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marelin by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Marelin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marelins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Marelin, while Texas, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marelin
The name Marelin is believed to have its origins in the ancient Sumerian language, which was spoken in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) around 3500 BCE. It is thought to be derived from the Sumerian words "mar" meaning "bright" and "lin" meaning "jewel" or "precious stone."
Linguists have found evidence of similar names in cuneiform inscriptions and clay tablets from the region, suggesting that Marelin or variations of it may have been used as a personal name during the Sumerian civilization. The name likely held connotations of beauty, radiance, and value.
Some scholars suggest that the name Marelin may have also been influenced by the ancient Akkadian language, which was closely related to Sumerian and spoken in the same region. In Akkadian, the word "maru" meant "son" or "child," which could have contributed to the first part of the name.
One of the earliest known recorded instances of the name Marelin comes from a cuneiform tablet dating back to around 2300 BCE, which mentions a woman by that name who was a priestess in the city of Uruk.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Marelin. One of the earliest was Marelin of Ur, a Sumerian architect and engineer who lived around 2100 BCE and is credited with designing and overseeing the construction of the renowned ziggurats of Ur.
In the 8th century BCE, there was a Babylonian scribe and scholar named Marelin who is believed to have contributed to the compilation of the Enuma Elish, a famous Babylonian epic poem that recounts the creation of the world.
During the Renaissance period, Marelin Vitale (1480-1546) was an Italian painter and fresco artist from Venice, known for her work in various churches and palaces throughout the city.
In the 19th century, Marelin Arbuthnot (1812-1891) was a Scottish writer and educationist who authored several children's books and served as the headmistress of a girls' school in Edinburgh.
More recently, Marelin Wibben (1920-2005) was a German-born American artist and sculptor known for her abstract and modernist works, which were widely exhibited in galleries across the United States.
People
Marelin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marelin as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Marelin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marelin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 263 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marelin going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,303,248 US residents.
Is Marelin a common name?
We classify Marelin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 267 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marelin most popular?
The single biggest year for Marelin was 2008, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marelin is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marelin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 333 people with the name Marelin, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,468 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Marelin in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Marelin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marelin appears almost entirely female. Of the 331 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Marelin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marelin is Hispanic at 93.7%. The next largest groups are White (3.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Marelin most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Marelin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.7% (312 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Marelin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marelin a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marelin in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Marelin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marelin in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Marelin can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Marelin?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.