Maricela
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "celebration of Mary".
Name Census estimates that about 12,092 living Americans carry the first name Maricela. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maricela today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maricela births was 1977 (437 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maricela. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Maricela is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 56 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 28,346 Americans
Peak year
1977
437 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
1990 SSA rank
#3,063
Tracked since 1944
Census
Maricela in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 31,157 people with the first name Maricela, which placed it at #1,227 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
#1,227
National first-name rank
People counted
31K
31,157 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
10.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
98.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maricela
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maricela is Hispanic at 98.8%. The next largest groups are White (0.9%) and Black (0.1%). 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 Maricela 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 Maricela at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino98.8% · 30,775
- White0.9% · 274
- Black or African American0.1% · 35
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 30
- Two or more races0.0% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Maricela
Out of the 13,068 babies given the name Maricela since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Maricela as a male name
- Ranked #8,998 in 1990
- 5 male births in 1990
- Peak: 1986 (9 births)
Maricela as a female name
- Ranked #3,063 in 2024
- 53 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1977 (437 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maricela appears almost entirely female. Of the 31,152 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Maricela: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maricela from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 3,095 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maricela 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 Maricela during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maricelas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Maricela, while Nevada, Utah, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 654 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maricela
Maricela is a Spanish feminine name derived from the combination of María and Cela, a shortening of the name Marcela. Its origins can be traced back to ancient Rome, where Marcella was a feminine form of the Roman family name Marcellus, meaning "young warrior" or "little warrior."
The name María, which forms the first part of Maricela, has its roots in the Hebrew name Miryam or Miriam, meaning "bitter" or "beloved." It gained widespread popularity after the birth of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, in the 1st century AD. As Christianity spread across Europe, the name María became a staple in many languages, including Spanish.
The earliest recorded use of the name Maricela dates back to the late 19th century in Spain and Latin American countries. One of the most notable historical figures with this name was Maricela Mariño de Soler (1906-1998), a Nicaraguan politician and women's rights activist who played a significant role in the country's feminist movement.
Another prominent figure was Maricela Paredes (1915-1985), a Cuban singer and actress known for her contributions to the Cuban son music genre. She was a leading voice in the golden age of Cuban music and performed with renowned musicians such as Arsenio Rodríguez and Benny Moré.
In the literary world, Maricela Loaiza Romero (1923-2008) was a renowned Colombian writer and poet. Her works explored themes of love, nature, and the human condition, and she was awarded several prestigious literary prizes throughout her career.
Maricela de la Luz Martínez (1936-2012) was a Mexican actress and singer who appeared in numerous films and television shows during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She was known for her versatility and her ability to portray a wide range of characters.
Maricela González Ayala (born 1959) is a Mexican politician and activist who has served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, representing the state of Nuevo León. She has been a vocal advocate for women's rights, indigenous rights, and environmental causes.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Maricela, a name that carries a rich cultural heritage and has been associated with various fields, including politics, arts, and literature.
People
Maricela + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maricela 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
Maricela: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maricela?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,092 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maricela 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 28,346 US residents.
Is Maricela a common name?
We classify Maricela as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 13,068 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maricela most popular?
The single biggest year for Maricela was 1977, when 437 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maricela is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maricela in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 31,157 people with the name Maricela, or 10.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,227 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 Maricela 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 Maricela?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maricela appears almost entirely female. Of the 31,152 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Maricela?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maricela is Hispanic at 98.8%. The next largest groups are White (0.9%) and Black (0.1%). 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 Maricela most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Maricela in the 2020 Census, accounting for 98.8% (30,775 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 Maricela in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maricela a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Maricela 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 Maricela still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maricela 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 Maricela 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 have Maricela as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.