Martyn
From the Latin name Martinus, meaning "consecrated to Mars", the Roman god of war.
Name Census estimates that about 464 living Americans carry the first name Martyn. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Martyn today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Martyn births was 1956 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Martyn. 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 Martyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
464
~ 1 in 738,695 Americans
Peak year
1956
17 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,467
Tracked since 1917
Census
Martyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 923 people with the first name Martyn, which placed it at #13,172 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
#13,172
National first-name rank
People counted
923
923 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Martyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Martyn is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Martyn 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 Martyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.3% · 778
- Hispanic or Latino8.0% · 74
- Two or more races3.0% · 28
- Black or African American2.7% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Popularity
Martyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Martyn 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 123 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
Martyn 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 Martyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Martyn
The name Martyn is derived from the ancient Roman name Martinus, which is a derivative of the name of the Roman god Mars. Mars was the god of war and an agricultural guardian in Roman mythology. The name Martinus was later adopted by early Christians as a given name.
In Latin, the name Martinus means "of Mars" or "devoted to Mars." It was a relatively popular name among early Christians, as they often gave their children names related to Roman gods and mythology. The name Martyn is an anglicized variant of Martinus, which emerged in medieval England.
One of the earliest and most famous bearers of the name Martyn was Saint Martin of Tours, a 4th-century bishop and monastery founder who was born in modern-day Hungary around 316 AD. He is known for his acts of charity and for sharing his cloak with a beggar, which led to his depiction in art with a cloak and sword.
Another notable Martyn was Martin of Braga, a 6th-century bishop and theologian who was born in modern-day Portugal around 520 AD. He is credited with establishing Christianity in the region and writing several influential theological works.
In the 12th century, Martin de Tours was a French monk and philosopher who was born around 1130 AD. He was a prominent figure in the scholastic movement and wrote extensively on logic and philosophy.
During the Renaissance period, Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German monk and theologian who initiated the Protestant Reformation. He is famous for his 95 Theses, which challenged certain practices of the Catholic Church.
In the 20th century, Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was an American Baptist minister and civil rights activist who played a pivotal role in the African-American civil rights movement. He is best known for his "I Have a Dream" speech and for promoting non-violent civil disobedience.
People
Martyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Martyn 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
Martyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Martyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 464 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Martyn 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 738,695 US residents.
Is Martyn a common name?
We classify Martyn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 566 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Martyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Martyn was 1956, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Martyn is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Martyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 923 people with the name Martyn, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,172 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 Martyn 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 Martyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Martyn leans strongly male. 892 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 26 female bearers (2.8%). 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 Martyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Martyn is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Martyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Martyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.3% (778 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 Martyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Martyn a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Martyn 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 Martyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Martyn 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 Martyn 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 Martyn?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Martyn at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.