Marvin
A French masculine name derived from the Germanic elements "mari" (famous) and "wine" (friend).
Name Census estimates that about 129,664 living Americans carry the first name Marvin. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Marvin today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marvin births was 1928 (4,484 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marvin. 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 Marvin with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Marvin is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,615 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
130K
~ 1 in 2,643 Americans
Peak year
1928
4,484 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2024 SSA rank
#671
Tracked since 1880
Census
Marvin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 135,347 people with the first name Marvin, which placed it at #420 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
#420
National first-name rank
People counted
135K
135,347 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
44.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marvin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marvin is White at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Black (25.7%) and Hispanic (18.9%). 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 Marvin 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 Marvin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.4% · 66,888
- Black or African American25.7% · 34,729
- Hispanic or Latino18.9% · 25,538
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 3,883
- Two or more races2.1% · 2,839
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 1,470
Gender
Gender distribution for Marvin
Out of the 255,401 babies given the name Marvin since 1880, 99.4% 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.
Marvin as a male name
- Ranked #671 in 2024
- 406 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1928 (4,452 births)
Marvin as a female name
- Ranked #17,130 in 2019
- 5 female births in 2019
- Peak: 1929 (44 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marvin appears almost entirely male. Of the 135,343 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Marvin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marvin from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 41,322 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marvin 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 Marvin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marvins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Texas, New York, California recorded the most babies named Marvin, while Rhode Island, Vermont, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 4,947 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marvin
The name Marvin has its origins in the Old French name Marvin or Marven, which was derived from the Old English name Mærwine. The name Mærwine is composed of the elements "mær" meaning "famous" and "wine" meaning "friend". Thus, the name Marvin can be interpreted as "famous friend".
The name Marvin was first recorded in England during the Norman Conquest in the 11th century. It was brought to England by the Norman French and gradually became a popular name among the English population. The earliest recorded spelling of the name was Marvyn in the Domesday Book of 1086.
In the Middle Ages, the name Marvin was associated with several historical figures. One notable example is Marvin de Cheremeunde, a French knight who fought in the Third Crusade in the late 12th century. Another was Marvin of Strathclyde, a Scottish nobleman and warrior who lived in the 10th century.
Throughout history, there have been several famous individuals bearing the name Marvin. One of the earliest was Marvin Gaye (1939-1984), an American singer-songwriter and record producer, known as the "Prince of Motown". Another was Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012), an American composer and conductor who won several Academy Awards and Emmy Awards.
In the field of science, Marvin Minsky (1927-2016) was a renowned American cognitive scientist and co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Marvin Zonis (1941-2020) was an American political scientist and economist, known for his expertise in Middle Eastern politics and economics.
In literature, Marvin Bell (born 1937) is an American poet and former Poet Laureate of Iowa. His works include "Stars Which See, Stars Which Do Not See" and "Vertigo: The Living Word Anthologies".
While the name Marvin has roots in Old English and Old French, it has been widely used across various cultures and time periods, with several notable individuals leaving their mark in various fields.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Marvin
People
Marvin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marvin 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
Marvin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marvin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 129,664 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marvin 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 2,643 US residents.
Is Marvin a common name?
We classify Marvin as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 255,401 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marvin most popular?
The single biggest year for Marvin was 1928, when 4,484 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marvin is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marvin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 135,347 people with the name Marvin, or 44.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #420 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 Marvin 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 Marvin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marvin appears almost entirely male. Of the 135,343 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Marvin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marvin is White at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Black (25.7%) and Hispanic (18.9%). 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 Marvin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marvin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.4% (66,888 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 Marvin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marvin a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Marvin 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 Marvin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marvin 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 Marvin 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 Marvin?
Find out how many Americans are named Marvin on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.