Marykate
Feminine combination name blending Mary of Hebrew origin meaning "bitter" and Kate meaning "pure".
Name Census estimates that about 2,059 living Americans carry the first name Marykate. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marykate today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marykate births was 2001 (85 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marykate. 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 Marykate with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 166,466 Americans
Peak year
2001
85 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,521
Tracked since 1958
Census
Marykate in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,498 people with the first name Marykate, which placed it at #5,036 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
#5,036
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,498 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
92.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marykate
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marykate is White at 92.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.5%). 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 Marykate 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 Marykate at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White92.6% · 3,238
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 100
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 86
- Two or more races1.2% · 41
- Black or African American0.8% · 27
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 6
Popularity
Marykate: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marykate from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 668 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
Marykate 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 Marykate during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marykates live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Marykate, while Texas, Florida, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 88 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marykate
The name Marykate is a relatively modern combination of the two classic names Mary and Kate. Mary is a Hebrew name that originated from the word "Miriam," meaning "bitter" or "beloved." It was a common name among Jews in ancient times and gained widespread popularity after the birth of Jesus Christ's mother, Mary.
Kate, on the other hand, is a diminutive form of the Greek name "Katharina," derived from the word "katharos," meaning "pure" or "clear." This name gained popularity in medieval Europe and has been a beloved name across various cultures for centuries.
While the combination of Mary and Kate into Marykate is a recent development, both names have rich historical roots. The name Mary has been found in religious texts and historical records dating back to ancient times, with notable figures like Mary Magdalene, a close follower of Jesus Christ, and Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), the ill-fated monarch of Scotland.
Kate, too, has been borne by several notable women throughout history, including Kate Sheppard (1847-1934), a pioneering leader in the women's suffrage movement in New Zealand, and Kate Chopin (1850-1904), an influential American author known for her feminist works.
Some other famous individuals with the first name Mary or Kate include Mary Shelley (1797-1851), the author of the Gothic novel "Frankenstein," Kate Winslet (born 1975), the acclaimed British actress, and Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), an American painter known for her depictions of the social and private lives of women.
While the name Marykate itself may not have a long historical lineage, it carries the rich legacies of its component names, blending the reverence and endurance of Mary with the purity and strength of Kate.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Marykate
People
Marykate + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marykate 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
Marykate: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marykate?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,059 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marykate 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 166,466 US residents.
Is Marykate a common name?
We classify Marykate as "Rare". It ranks above 93.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,145 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marykate most popular?
The single biggest year for Marykate was 2001, when 85 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marykate 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 Marykate in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,498 people with the name Marykate, or 1.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,036 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 Marykate 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 Marykate?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marykate appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,506 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Marykate?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marykate is White at 92.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.5%). 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 Marykate most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marykate in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.6% (3,238 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 Marykate in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marykate a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marykate 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 Marykate still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marykate 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 Marykate 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 are named Marykate?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.