Marques
A French name derived from the title of a marquis.
Name Census estimates that about 7,815 living Americans carry the first name Marques. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Marques today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marques births was 1983 (350 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marques. 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 Marques with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.8K
~ 1 in 43,859 Americans
Peak year
1983
350 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,645
Tracked since 1952
Census
Marques in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,002 people with the first name Marques, which placed it at #3,460 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
#3,460
National first-name rank
People counted
6.0K
6,002 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
70.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marques
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marques is Black at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.3%) and Two or More Races (8.7%). 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 Marques 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 Marques at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American70.9% · 4,253
- Hispanic or Latino12.3% · 739
- Two or more races8.7% · 524
- White5.7% · 341
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 84
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 61
Gender
Gender distribution for Marques
Out of the 8,068 babies given the name Marques since 1880, 99.7% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Marques as a male name
- Ranked #3,645 in 2024
- 31 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1984 (350 births)
Marques as a female name
- Ranked #10,711 in 1987
- 6 female births in 1987
- Peak: 1983 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marques appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,006 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Marques: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marques from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 2,439 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marques 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 Marques during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marques' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 34 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Marques, while Oklahoma, Kentucky, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 164 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marques
The name Marques has its origins in the Portuguese and Spanish languages, derived from the Latin word "Marcus," which itself is believed to have originated from the Roman god of war, Mars. The earliest recorded use of the name dates back to the 13th century in Portugal and Spain.
In Portugal, the name Marques was often associated with nobility and aristocracy, as it was a common practice to bestow titles such as "Marquês" (Marquis) upon members of the ruling class. This connection between the name and social status likely contributed to its widespread popularity in the region.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Marques can be found in the chronicles of the Portuguese conquest of Ceuta in 1415, where a knight named Marques de Valença is mentioned as playing a significant role in the military campaign.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Marques. One of the most prominent was Marques de Pombal (1699-1782), a Portuguese statesman and prime minister who implemented a series of significant reforms during the reign of King Joseph I.
In the realm of literature, Marques de Santillana (1398-1458), a Spanish poet and nobleman, is celebrated for his contributions to the development of Spanish poetry and his patronage of the arts.
Another notable figure was Marques de Comillas (1816-1925), a Spanish businessman and entrepreneur who founded one of the largest shipping companies in the world during the 19th century.
In the field of music, Marques Houston (born 1981) is an American singer, rapper, and actor who rose to fame as a member of the R&B group Immature in the 1990s.
Lastly, in the world of sports, Marques Haynes (1926-2015) was an American basketball player renowned for his exceptional dribbling skills and showmanship, earning him the nickname "The World's Greatest Dribbler."
People
Marques + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marques 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
Marques: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marques?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,815 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marques 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 43,859 US residents.
Is Marques a common name?
We classify Marques as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,068 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marques most popular?
The single biggest year for Marques was 1983, when 350 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marques is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marques in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,002 people with the name Marques, or 1.99 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,460 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 Marques 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 Marques?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marques appears almost entirely male. Of the 6,006 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Marques?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marques is Black at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.3%) and Two or More Races (8.7%). 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 Marques most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Marques in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.9% (4,253 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 Marques in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marques a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Marques in the SSA data are male. 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 Marques still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marques 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 Marques 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 common is the name Marques?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.