Martinez
A Spanish surname indicating a paternal lineage or place of origin.
Name Census estimates that about 1,077 living Americans carry the first name Martinez. It is a predominantly male name (97.5% of registrations). The average person named Martinez today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Martinez births was 1990 (41 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Martinez. 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
1.1K
~ 1 in 318,249 Americans
Peak year
1990
41 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2022 SSA rank
#13,625
Tracked since 1941
Census
Martinez in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,793 people with the first name Martinez, which placed it at #8,151 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
#8,151
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,793 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
54.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Martinez
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Martinez is Hispanic at 54.0%. The next largest groups are Black (36.3%) and White (5.2%). 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 Martinez 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 Martinez at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino54.0% · 969
- Black or African American36.3% · 651
- White5.2% · 94
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 35
- Two or more races1.4% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 19
Gender
Gender distribution for Martinez
Martinez leans heavily male at 97.5% of total registrations, but 29 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Martinez as a male name
- Ranked #13,625 in 2022
- 5 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1990 (41 births)
Martinez as a female name
- Ranked #14,665 in 1992
- 5 female births in 1992
- Peak: 1977 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Martinez on both sides of the split. Of the 1,794 people counted with this name, 1,394 were male (77.7%) and 400 were female (22.3%).
Popularity
Martinez: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Martinez from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 269 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
Martinez 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 Martinez during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Martinez' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Illinois, Alabama, Georgia recorded the most babies named Martinez, while Texas, Michigan, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Martinez
Martinez is a Spanish surname that originated in the region of Asturias in northwestern Spain. It is believed to be derived from the Latin name "Martinus," which was the name of a 4th-century Roman soldier who later became a Catholic saint. The name "Martinus" is derived from the Latin word "Mars," which was the name of the Roman god of war.
The name Martinez first appeared in historical records in the 8th century, during the reign of the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula. It was used as a given name for males, although it was more commonly used as a surname.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Martinez is Martinus of Braga, a 6th-century Christian bishop and writer who was born in Pannonia (modern-day Hungary) and later became the Archbishop of Braga in Portugal. He is known for his writings on Christian theology and for his efforts to convert the Suevi people of the Iberian Peninsula to Christianity.
In the 12th century, Martinez appeared as a given name in the "Cantar de Mio Cid," a medieval Spanish epic poem that tells the story of the Castilian hero El Cid. One of the characters in the poem is named Martinez, although it is unclear whether this was a first name or a surname.
Another notable historical figure with the name Martinez was Gonzalo Martínez de Oviedo y Valdés (1478-1557), a Spanish soldier, historian, and author who is best known for his work "Historia General y Natural de las Indias," which is a detailed account of the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
During the Spanish Reconquista, the name Martinez was also used by several prominent military leaders and nobles. One such figure was Martín Martínez de Aragón (1357-1409), a Spanish nobleman and military commander who fought against the Moors in the service of the Crown of Aragon.
In the 16th century, the name Martinez was brought to the Americas by Spanish settlers and conquistadors. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name in the Americas is Juan Martínez de Ampiés (c. 1495-1561), a Spanish soldier and explorer who accompanied Hernán Cortés in the conquest of Mexico.
Throughout the centuries, the name Martinez has been borne by many other notable figures in various fields, including literature, art, science, and politics. However, due to its widespread use as a surname, it is difficult to trace the history of Martinez as a given name in its own right.
People
Martinez + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Martinez 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
Martinez: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Martinez?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,077 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Martinez 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 318,249 US residents.
Is Martinez a common name?
We classify Martinez as "Rare". It ranks above 90.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,155 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Martinez most popular?
The single biggest year for Martinez was 1990, when 41 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Martinez is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Martinez in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,793 people with the name Martinez, or 0.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,151 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 Martinez 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 Martinez?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Martinez on both sides of the split. Of the 1,794 people counted with this name, 1,394 were male (77.7%) and 400 were female (22.3%). 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 Martinez?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Martinez is Hispanic at 54.0%. The next largest groups are Black (36.3%) and White (5.2%). 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 Martinez most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Martinez in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.0% (969 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 Martinez in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Martinez a male name?
Yes, 97.5% of people registered as Martinez 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 Martinez still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Martinez 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 Martinez 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 Martinez as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.