Marco
Masculine · “Of Mars”
Marco is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 76,578 boys against 339 girls since 1880.
Marco is the Italian and Spanish form of Marcus, one of the small handful of Roman first names that stayed in constant use from the Republic to the present day. Two syllables, four consonants, no silent letters — it lands the same way in Rome, Madrid, São Paulo and San Diego. Few names this old are still this easy to say.
How old is the name Marco?
Marco first appears in US birth records in 1910 — 115 years ago. The typical Marco alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 72,000 people named Marco are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marco most popular?
Marco peaked in 1996, reaching #174 nationally. Today it ranks #370, 196 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Marco appears on these lists:
- Names that begin and end with the same letter
- Italian names Americans adore
- Names borrowed from explorers
- Renaissance names from the Italian courts
- Names that work in Spanish and English
- Names ending in -o
- all guides
Works in Italian families too:
Where it comes from
From Marcus to Marco
The story of Marco
Marcus was one of roughly a dozen praenomina that Roman men actually used, which is why it turns up on so many tombstones and in so many histories. Through Latin it passed into Italian as Marco, into Spanish and Portuguese as Marcos and Marco, into French as Marc and into English as Mark. Venice took Saint Mark as its patron and built the basilica and square that still carry his name, and the city's most famous traveler, the thirteenth-century merchant Marco Polo, carried it across Asia and back. It reached the United States with Italian families first and later with Spanish-speaking ones, which is why it sits most thickly today in California, Texas and Florida.
Meaning
Of Mars — the Roman god of war
The link between Marcus and Mars is the accepted reading. What the god's own name meant before Latin is lost, so the trail ends there rather than at a tidy translation.
How the name formed
- Marcus
- Marco
- Marcos
Related forms: Marcus · Mark · Marcos · Marc · Markus · Marek
Pronouncing Marco
MAR-koh
Stress on the first syllable everywhere. Italian and Spanish speakers tap or roll the r and keep the o crisp; English speakers usually flatten it to MAR-koh. Both are the same name and no one will be confused.
Nicknames for Marco
High
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
- 1910
- Most boys named
- 20022,027 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #174reached in 1996
- Change vs 2023
- +3.1%862 in 2025, from 836
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.
Marco in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marcus in Latin — same name
- Mark in English — related form
- Marcos in Spanish — related form
- Marc in French — related form
- Markus in German — related form
- Marek in Polish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Marcos among us
people named Marco are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,982 born in 2025 was named Marco
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Forrest test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marco's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Forrest climbed just as high around 1913, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Forrest's path sketches the road Marco is walking now.
Marco sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Marco is headed
Marco should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Marco beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marco in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds, in English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese alike — rarely misspelled once heard.
- An unbroken record from Roman Latin to the present, with no gap where the name fell out of use.
- Two syllables and already short, so it needs no nickname to be everyday.
- Has a familiar English cousin in Mark, which helps older relatives place it immediately.
- Steady rather than fashionable: represented across generations without belonging to any one of them.
- The swimming-pool game means a child called Marco will hear his own name shouted across a lot of water, usually followed by "Polo." Most Marcos find this funny long before adults stop worrying about it.
- There is little room to shorten it, so the name he gets is the name he keeps. If you like a formal-and-casual pair, this one does not really offer one.
- Marcos, Marko and Mark all circle nearby, so expect the occasional form to be filled in wrong — an easy correction, but a lifelong one.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Marco to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Marco? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Marco
Masculine · #370 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marcos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 72,000 people named Marco are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marco in 2025?
- Marco ranks #370 among US boy names in 2025, with 862 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marco?
- About 1 in every 1,982 US boys born in 2025 was named Marco — 862 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marco with classmates?
- Marco will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marco
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Manuel#371 · Miller#369 · Matthias#372 · Andre#368 · Kyaire#367 · Grady#373 · Forrest#374 · Erick#366
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marco? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marco and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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