Maurine
A feminine name of French origin meaning "from Moors".
Name Census estimates that about 1,526 living Americans carry the first name Maurine. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maurine today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maurine births was 1917 (313 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maurine. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Maurine is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Maurines were born before 1965.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 224,610 Americans
Peak year
1917
313 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
2020 SSA rank
#14,503
Tracked since 1890
Census
Maurine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,579 people with the first name Maurine, which placed it at #6,255 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
#6,255
National first-name rank
People counted
2.6K
2,579 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maurine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maurine is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Black (12.2%) and Hispanic (2.2%). 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 Maurine 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 Maurine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.4% · 2,100
- Black or African American12.2% · 314
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 58
- Two or more races1.9% · 50
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 42
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 15
Popularity
Maurine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maurine from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 2,448 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maurine 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 Maurine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maurines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. Texas, Utah, California recorded the most babies named Maurine, while Washington, Virginia, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 177 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maurine
The name Maurine has its roots in the Latin word "Maurus," which means "dark" or "swarthy." This name was initially associated with the Moors, a group of Muslim inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. The name likely originated as a descriptive term for individuals with darker complexions.
The earliest recorded use of the name Maurine dates back to the late 19th century, when it began to gain popularity in certain regions of Europe and North America. It is believed that the name was derived from the French masculine name Maurice, which itself stems from the Latin name Mauritius.
In ancient Roman history, there was a notable figure named Mauritius who was a Christian martyr and saint from the 3rd century AD. He served as a leader in the Theban Legion, a Roman army unit composed primarily of Christian soldiers. Mauritius and his legion were executed for refusing to renounce their Christian faith, and he was later venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Maurine was Maurine Dallas Watkins, an American playwright and screenwriter born in 1896. She is best known for her 1926 play "Chicago," which was later adapted into a successful Broadway musical and film.
Another notable Maurine was Maurine Whipple (1903-1992), an American novelist and short story writer. Her best-known work is the novel "The Giant Joshua" (1941), which explores the lives of Mormon settlers in the American West.
In the world of music, Maurine Stuart Brown (1926-2018) was an American operatic soprano who had a successful career performing with major opera companies in the United States and Europe during the mid-20th century.
Maurine Neuberger (1907-2000) was an American politician and author who served as a United States Senator from Oregon from 1960 to 1967. She was one of the few women to serve in the U.S. Senate at that time.
Finally, Maurine Dallas Sampson (1930-2015) was an American actress and singer who appeared in several Broadway productions, including the original cast of the musical "West Side Story" in 1957.
People
Maurine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maurine 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
Maurine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maurine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,526 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maurine 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 224,610 US residents.
Is Maurine a common name?
We classify Maurine as "Rare". It ranks above 92.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,949 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maurine most popular?
The single biggest year for Maurine was 1917, when 313 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maurine is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maurine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,579 people with the name Maurine, or 0.85 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,255 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 Maurine 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 Maurine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maurine appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,574 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Maurine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maurine is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Black (12.2%) and Hispanic (2.2%). 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 Maurine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maurine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.4% (2,100 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 Maurine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maurine a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maurine 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 Maurine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maurine 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 Maurine 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 Maurine as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Maurine, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.