Marquis
A masculine name of French origin meaning "the marquis" or "lord".
Name Census estimates that about 23,897 living Americans carry the first name Marquis. It is a predominantly male name (98.1% of registrations). The average person named Marquis today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marquis births was 1990 (1,065 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marquis. 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 Marquis with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Marquis is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 474 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
24K
~ 1 in 14,343 Americans
Peak year
1990
1,065 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,474
Tracked since 1880
Census
Marquis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,233 people with the first name Marquis, which placed it at #1,751 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
#1,751
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
17,233 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
82.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marquis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marquis is Black at 82.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Marquis 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 Marquis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American82.5% · 14,220
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 1,112
- Two or more races5.9% · 1,012
- White4.2% · 719
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 86
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 84
Gender
Gender distribution for Marquis
Marquis leans heavily male at 98.1% of total registrations, but 474 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Marquis as a male name
- Ranked #1,474 in 2024
- 123 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (1,037 births)
Marquis as a female name
- Ranked #17,841 in 2004
- 5 female births in 2004
- Peak: 1991 (30 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marquis leans strongly male. 16,888 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 347 female bearers (2.0%).
Popularity
Marquis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marquis from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 9,006 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marquis 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 Marquis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marquis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. Florida, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Marquis, while West Virginia, Rhode Island, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 575 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marquis
The name Marquis has its roots in the French language and can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old French word "marchis," which in turn comes from the Medieval Latin word "marchensis," meaning "ruler of a border territory."
During the feudal system of medieval Europe, a marquis was a nobleman who held a rank just below that of a duke. The title was often bestowed upon lords who governed territories along the borders or frontiers of a kingdom or empire. These frontier regions were referred to as "marches," and the noblemen who ruled them were known as "marquises."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Marquis can be found in the chronicles of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom from the 5th to the 8th century. The name appears in documents referring to various marquises who held territories along the borders of the Frankish realm.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Marquis. One of the most famous was Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), a French aristocrat and military officer who played a pivotal role in the American Revolutionary War. He served as a major-general in the Continental Army and was a close friend and ally of George Washington.
Another prominent figure was Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), a French nobleman, philosopher, and writer whose works explored themes of violence, criminality, and sexuality. His name has become synonymous with sadism, a term derived from his surname.
In the realm of literature, Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and political theorist who advocated for the abolition of slavery and the advancement of women's rights. He is best known for his work "Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind."
The name Marquis also holds significance in the world of art and culture. Marquis de Pombal (1699-1782) was a Portuguese statesman and reformer who played a crucial role in rebuilding Lisbon after the devastating earthquake of 1755. His architectural and urban planning efforts left a lasting legacy in the city's reconstruction.
In the field of music, Marquis de Cuevas (1900-1986) was a Spanish-American impresario and ballet company director. He founded the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, which toured extensively and helped popularize ballet performances around the world.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Marquis
People
Marquis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marquis 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
Marquis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marquis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 23,897 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marquis 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 14,343 US residents.
Is Marquis a common name?
We classify Marquis as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 24,940 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marquis most popular?
The single biggest year for Marquis was 1990, when 1,065 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marquis 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 Marquis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,233 people with the name Marquis, or 5.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,751 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 Marquis 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 Marquis?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marquis leans strongly male. 16,888 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 347 female bearers (2.0%). 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 Marquis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marquis is Black at 82.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Marquis most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Marquis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.5% (14,220 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 Marquis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marquis a male name?
Yes, 98.1% of people registered as Marquis 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 Marquis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marquis 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 Marquis 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 Americans are named Marquis?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.