Marcene
Feminine · “Of Mars”
Marcene is the newest of several women's forms of Marcus, and the only one made in America. Latin made Marcia and Marcella, Italian made Marcella again, French made Marcelle, and the twentieth-century United States made this one by attaching an ending that had no grammar behind it at all.
How old is the name Marcene?
Marcene first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Marcene alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 700 people named Marcene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marcene most popular?
Marcene peaked in 1931, reaching #1258 nationally. See the whole 1931 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Marcus to Marcene
The story of Marcene
The Roman year began in March, and the fossil evidence is sitting in the calendar. September, October, November and December mean the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth months, and they are the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth, because two months were added at the front and everything after them slid. March was first because it was when campaigning weather returned and the armies went out, which is why the war god has the month and why Marcus was one of the commonest names in Rome. The feminine forms are old: Marcia and Marcella are both Roman and both were carried by real women in the first centuries of the Church. Marcene is not old. It belongs to the twentieth century and to a way of making names that has no ancient equivalent.
Meaning
Of Mars
Marcus belonged to the god of war, in the way that Roman names routinely dedicated a child to a deity without saying anything about the child. The month of March belongs to the same god. The ending here is American, taken from a set of names that were fashionable at the time it was made, and it carries no meaning in any language.
How the name formed
- Marcus
- Marcia
- Marcene
Related forms: Marcella · Marcelle · Marcia · Marcia
Pronouncing Marcene
mar-SEEN
Two syllables with the stress at the back. The c before an e is soft, which is the French and English habit, and the reason the Latin name is said with a k and this one is not.
Nicknames for Marcene
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 194643 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1258reached in 1931
- Change vs 1977
- −16.7%5 in 1979, from 6
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Marcene in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marcella in Italian — related form
- Marcelle in French — related form
- Marcia in Spanish — related form
- Marcia in Latin — related form
Marcenes among us
people named Marcene are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Marcene sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- A short, clean name with a genuinely ancient front half that can be traced and checked.
- Marcy sits inside it as an entirely ordinary everyday form.
- Final stress gives the name a definite ending and makes it carry across a room.
- The ending places the name firmly in the first half of the last century in American ears.
- Marcine, Marseen and Marcene are all possible spellings of the same sound.
- It will be heard as Marlene and as Maureen, both of which are commoner.
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Marcene
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Marcenes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Marcene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marcene in 2025?
- Marcene is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Marcene with classmates?
- Marcene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marcene? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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