Marilou
A feminine name of American origin meaning "beloved bitter rebel".
Name Census estimates that about 1,588 living Americans carry the first name Marilou. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marilou today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marilou births was 1948 (90 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marilou. 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
1.6K
~ 1 in 215,840 Americans
Peak year
1948
90 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,730
Tracked since 1915
Census
Marilou in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,895 people with the first name Marilou, which placed it at #3,510 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
#3,510
National first-name rank
People counted
5.9K
5,895 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
61.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marilou
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marilou is Asian/Pacific Islander at 61.9%. The next largest groups are White (29.9%) and Hispanic (6.4%). 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 Marilou 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 Marilou at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander61.9% · 3,650
- White29.9% · 1,763
- Hispanic or Latino6.4% · 375
- Two or more races1.1% · 64
- Black or African American0.5% · 29
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 14
Popularity
Marilou: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marilou from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 729 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marilou 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 Marilou during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marilous live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. California, Ohio, Illinois recorded the most babies named Marilou, while Kentucky, Kansas, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 74 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marilou
The name Marilou is a French feminine given name that combines the names Marie and Louise. The first part, Marie, has its origins in the ancient Semitic languages, deriving from the Hebrew name Miryam or the Egyptian Mry. This root is thought to mean "beloved" or "wished-for child." The second part, Lou, is a French diminutive form of the name Louise, which stems from the Germanic name Hlodwig, meaning "famous warrior."
Marilou can be traced back to medieval France, where the veneration of the Virgin Mary was widespread. The name Marie was tremendously popular during this period, and it was common to combine it with other names, such as Louise, to create variations like Marilou.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Marilou can be found in a 13th-century French manuscript, where it appears as a variant of Marie-Louise. However, it remained relatively obscure until the 19th century when it started gaining popularity in certain regions of France.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Marilou. One of the earliest was Marilou de Pardieu (c. 1290-1360), a French noblewoman and writer who left behind a collection of poems and songs. Another prominent figure was Marilou Duval (1768-1836), a French actress and dancer who performed at the Comédie-Française in Paris.
In the 20th century, Marilou Pastreich (1912-2005) was a German-American artist and printmaker known for her abstract expressionist works. Marilou Diaz-Abaya (1955-2012) was a celebrated Filipino film director and screenwriter who tackled social issues in her films.
More recently, Marilou Danley (born 1952) gained public attention as the girlfriend of the perpetrator of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. However, she was not directly involved in the incident and was cleared by investigators.
While the name Marilou has French origins, it has also found use in other cultures and languages, particularly in the Francophone world. Its popularity has waxed and waned over the centuries, but it continues to be a recognizable and evocative name with a rich historical lineage.
People
Marilou + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marilou 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
Marilou: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marilou?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,588 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marilou 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 215,840 US residents.
Is Marilou a common name?
We classify Marilou as "Rare". It ranks above 92.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,231 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marilou most popular?
The single biggest year for Marilou was 1948, when 90 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marilou is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marilou in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,895 people with the name Marilou, or 1.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,510 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 Marilou 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 Marilou?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marilou appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,888 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Marilou?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marilou is Asian/Pacific Islander at 61.9%. The next largest groups are White (29.9%) and Hispanic (6.4%). 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 Marilou most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Marilou in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.9% (3,650 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 Marilou in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marilou a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marilou 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 Marilou still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marilou 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 Marilou 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 called Marilou?
Find out how many people share the name Marilou on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.