Maryan
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "little bitter one".
Name Census estimates that about 993 living Americans carry the first name Maryan. It is a predominantly female name (97.9% of registrations). The average person named Maryan today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maryan births was 2013 (38 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maryan. 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 Maryan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
993
~ 1 in 345,171 Americans
Peak year
2013
38 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
1924 SSA rank
#4,173
Tracked since 1904
Census
Maryan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,576 people with the first name Maryan, which placed it at #6,265 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
#6,265
National first-name rank
People counted
2.6K
2,576 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
56.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maryan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maryan is Black at 56.4%. The next largest groups are White (29.2%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Maryan 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 Maryan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American56.4% · 1,454
- White29.2% · 752
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 180
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.2% · 133
- Two or more races1.9% · 49
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Maryan
Maryan leans heavily female at 97.9% of total registrations, but 33 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Maryan as a male name
- Ranked #4,173 in 1924
- 6 male births in 1924
- Peak: 1917 (8 births)
Maryan as a female name
- Ranked #7,103 in 2024
- 16 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2013 (38 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maryan leans strongly female. 2,457 people counted with this name were female (95.5%), compared with 117 male bearers (4.5%).
Popularity
Maryan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maryan from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 311 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Maryan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maryan 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 Maryan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maryans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Minnesota, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Maryan, while Wisconsin, Ohio, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maryan
The name Maryan has its origins in the ancient Aramaic language, which was widely spoken in the Middle East during the time of the Persian Empire and the early Christian era. It is derived from the Aramaic root "mr" or "mry," which means "lord" or "master." The name likely emerged as a variant of the more common name "Miriam" or "Mary," which also has Aramaic roots and is related to the Hebrew name "Miryam."
In its earliest recorded use, Maryan was a masculine name, often given to boys born into Christian families in regions where Aramaic was the predominant language. It was particularly popular among Aramaic-speaking communities in modern-day Syria, Lebanon, and parts of Turkey and Iran. The name is also found in ancient Syriac Christian texts and manuscripts from as early as the 3rd century AD.
One of the earliest known historical figures to bear the name Maryan was Saint Maryan of Nazianzus, a 4th-century Christian hermit and ascetic who lived in a remote cave near the city of Nazianzus (modern-day Niksar, Turkey). He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches.
Another notable Maryan from antiquity was Maryan the Monk, a 5th-century Syrian Christian scholar and writer who authored several theological treatises and historical works in Syriac. He is credited with preserving important records of the early Christian Church in the Middle East.
During the medieval period, the name Maryan remained relatively uncommon outside of Aramaic-speaking regions but was occasionally used by Christian families in other parts of the Middle East and Europe. One notable figure from this era was Maryan the Hermit, a 12th-century Christian hermit and mystic who lived in a remote cave near the River Jordan in the Holy Land.
In the 16th century, a prominent figure named Maryan appeared in the Ottoman Empire. Maryan al-Maalouf was a Maronite Christian scholar and poet from Lebanon who wrote extensively in Arabic and was known for his mastery of classical Arabic literature.
In more recent history, the name Maryan has been used by individuals from various cultural backgrounds, although it remains relatively uncommon. One notable 20th-century figure was Maryan Malerba, an Italian artist and sculptor known for her innovative use of unconventional materials in her artwork.
People
Maryan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maryan 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
Maryan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maryan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 993 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maryan 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 345,171 US residents.
Is Maryan a common name?
We classify Maryan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 90.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,600 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maryan most popular?
The single biggest year for Maryan was 2013, when 38 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maryan is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maryan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,576 people with the name Maryan, or 0.85 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,265 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 Maryan 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 Maryan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maryan leans strongly female. 2,457 people counted with this name were female (95.5%), compared with 117 male bearers (4.5%). 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 Maryan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maryan is Black at 56.4%. The next largest groups are White (29.2%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Maryan most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Maryan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.4% (1,454 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 Maryan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maryan a female name?
Yes, 97.9% of people registered as Maryan in the SSA data are female. 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 Maryan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maryan 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 Maryan 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 Maryan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.