Markella
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "an untilled field".
Name Census estimates that about 294 living Americans carry the first name Markella. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Markella today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Markella births was 2008 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Markella. 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
294
~ 1 in 1,165,831 Americans
Peak year
2008
13 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,930
Tracked since 1972
Census
Markella in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 347 people with the first name Markella, which placed it at #26,696 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
#26,696
National first-name rank
People counted
347
347 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Markella
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Markella is White at 74.6%. The next largest groups are Black (15.6%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Markella 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 Markella at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.6% · 259
- Black or African American15.6% · 54
- Two or more races4.9% · 17
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 1
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Markella: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Markella from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 73 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Markella remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Markella 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 Markella during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Markellas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Markella
Markella is a feminine given name of Greek origin. It is derived from the ancient Greek name Markellos, which is a diminutive form of the name Markos, meaning "consecrated to Mars". Mars was the Roman god of war, equivalent to the Greek god Ares.
The name Markella can be traced back to the Byzantine era, around the 5th to 15th centuries AD. It was commonly used among Greek-speaking populations in the Byzantine Empire and later in Greece and other regions with Greek cultural influence.
In the Byzantine period, the name Markella appeared in various historical records and texts. One notable early reference is found in the writings of the 6th-century Byzantine historian Procopius, who mentions a woman named Markella in his work "Secret History".
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Markella was Saint Markella of Chios, a 5th-century virgin martyr and saint venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church. She was born in the Greek island of Chios and is celebrated on July 22nd in the Orthodox calendar.
Another notable figure with the name Markella was Markella of Ancyra, a 5th-century Christian martyr from Ancyra (modern-day Ankara, Turkey). She was martyred during the reign of Emperor Julian the Apostate for her Christian faith.
In the medieval period, Markella was a relatively common name among Byzantine nobility and aristocracy. One famous bearer was Markella Kantakouzene (c. 1349–1379), a Byzantine princess and the daughter of Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos.
During the Renaissance, the name Markella gained some popularity in Italy, particularly in regions with Greek cultural influence. One notable Italian bearer was Markella Manara (c. 1495–1558), a noblewoman and patron of the arts from Ferrara.
In more recent times, Markella has remained a popular name in Greece and among Greek communities around the world. Some notable modern bearers include the Greek singer Markella Giannatou (born 1929) and the Greek-American artist Markella Siaga (born 1955).
People
Markella + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Markella 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
Markella: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Markella?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 294 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Markella 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 1,165,831 US residents.
Is Markella a common name?
We classify Markella as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 303 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Markella most popular?
The single biggest year for Markella was 2008, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Markella is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Markella in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 347 people with the name Markella, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,696 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 Markella 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 Markella?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Markella appears almost entirely female. Of the 348 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Markella?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Markella is White at 74.6%. The next largest groups are Black (15.6%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Markella most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Markella in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.6% (259 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 Markella in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Markella a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Markella 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 Markella still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Markella 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 Markella 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 the name Markella?
Find out how many people share the name Markella on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.