Marla
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly a blend of names.
Name Census estimates that about 30,406 living Americans carry the first name Marla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marla today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marla births was 1955 (1,730 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marla. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Marla with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Marla have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
30K
~ 1 in 11,273 Americans
Peak year
1955
1,730 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
1982 SSA rank
#2,334
Tracked since 1912
Census
Marla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 36,368 people with the first name Marla, which placed it at #1,124 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
#1,124
National first-name rank
People counted
36K
36,368 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
12.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marla is White at 74.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.7%) and Black (6.9%). 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 Marla 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 Marla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.6% · 27,143
- Hispanic or Latino13.7% · 4,993
- Black or African American6.9% · 2,515
- Two or more races2.4% · 868
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 471
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 378
Gender
Gender distribution for Marla
Out of the 38,728 babies given the name Marla since 1880, 99.9% 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.
Marla as a male name
- Ranked #6,997 in 1982
- 5 male births in 1982
- Peak: 1961 (7 births)
Marla as a female name
- Ranked #2,334 in 2024
- 79 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1955 (1,725 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marla appears almost entirely female. Of the 36,374 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Marla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marla from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 11,452 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marla 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 Marla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marlas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. California, Illinois, Texas recorded the most babies named Marla, while Alaska, Maine, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 745 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marla
The name Marla is derived from the German language and is believed to have originated in the late Middle Ages, around the 14th or 15th century. It is a feminine form of the name Marlo or Marlowe, which can be traced back to the Old English word "mere" meaning "lake" or "pool."
In its earliest known usage, Marla was a variant spelling of the name Marleyne, which was a feminine form of the male name Marlen. This name was particularly popular in the German-speaking regions of Europe during the medieval period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Marla can be found in the records of the city of Cologne, Germany, where a woman named Marla von Köln was mentioned in a legal document dated 1472. This suggests that the name was already in use in that region by the late 15th century.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Marla. One of the earliest was Marla of Rüdesheim (1470-1541), a German abbess and author who wrote extensively on religious and monastic topics during the Reformation era.
In the 19th century, Marla Verne (1824-1892) was a French author and playwright who gained recognition for her romantic novels and plays depicting the lives of aristocratic women in Paris.
Another prominent figure was Marla Gilman (1892-1964), an American sculptor and artist who was known for her modernist works and served as the director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1939 to 1959.
In the 20th century, Marla Gibbs (born 1931) is an American actress and comedian who rose to fame for her role as Florence Johnston on the popular sitcom "The Jeffersons" and later appeared in various other television shows and films.
Marla Maples (born 1963) is an American actress and television personality who was briefly married to Donald Trump in the 1990s and is the mother of his daughter Tiffany Trump.
While the name Marla has its roots in the German language and culture, it has since been adopted and used in various other parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries. However, its origins and historical significance remain closely tied to its Germanic heritage and the medieval period in Europe.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Marla
People
Marla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marla 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
Marla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 30,406 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marla 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 11,273 US residents.
Is Marla a common name?
We classify Marla as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 38,728 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marla most popular?
The single biggest year for Marla was 1955, when 1,730 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marla is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 36,368 people with the name Marla, or 12.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,124 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 Marla 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 Marla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marla appears almost entirely female. Of the 36,374 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 Marla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marla is White at 74.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.7%) and Black (6.9%). 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 Marla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.6% (27,143 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 Marla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marla a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Marla 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 Marla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marla 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 Marla 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 share the name Marla?
Want to know how many Americans are named Marla? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.