Marice
Masculine · “Moorish”
Marice is given to both — 717 boys and 467 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Marice drops the u out of a French name and lands somewhere between it and an entirely different woman's name, which is presumably why the record holds this spelling for daughters as well as sons, though sons are the larger share. The saint behind the longer name gave his to an abbey that has been in continuous operation for fifteen centuries.
How old is the name Marice?
Marice first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Marice alive today was born around 1980, making them about 45 years old. About 600 people named Marice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marice most popular?
Marice peaked in 1974, reaching #1886 nationally. See the whole 1974 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Maurus to Marice
The story of Marice
A monastery in the Rhône valley in what is now Switzerland was founded over the grave of a soldier-saint of that name, and it has been occupied without a break since the early sixth century, which makes it one of the oldest continuously inhabited religious houses in the western world. Its distinguishing practice for much of that time was perpetual prayer: the community was divided into shifts that relieved one another in the church so that the singing never stopped, day or night, a discipline the abbey took up shortly after its founding and kept for centuries. The treasury it accumulated is still there and includes objects given by Merovingian kings, which makes it one of the very few collections in Europe that has never been dispersed. The town that grew around it carries the name as well.
Meaning
Moorish; dark-complexioned
From the late Latin Mauricius, a derivative of Maurus, which meant a man from Mauretania in north Africa and came to be used of dark-skinned people generally. The English morris dance carries the same word and has nothing to do with the name.
How the name formed
- Maurus
- Mauricius
- Maurice
- Marice
Related forms: Maurizio · Mauricio · Moritz · Maurits · Maurício
Pronouncing Marice
muh-REESE
Two syllables with the stress at the back. The missing u takes away the only letter that told an English reader the first vowel was not a plain a, so this spelling is read several ways on sight.
Nicknames for Marice
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
- 1920
- Most boys named
- 197625 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1886reached in 1974
- Change vs 2010
- +37.5%11 in 2011, from 8
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.
Marice in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maurizio in Italian — same name
- Mauricio in Spanish — same name
- Moritz in German — same name
- Maurits in Dutch — same name
- Maurício in Portuguese — same name
Marices among us
people named Marice 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
Marice 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
- Back stress gives it a definite shape and makes it carry.
- Mo and Reese are both available and sound nothing like each other.
- The name behind it is at home across most of Europe.
- Maurice is far commoner and will be written for it by default.
- It leans to boys, but a real share of children with this spelling are girls, so forms will sometimes guess wrong.
- The first vowel has no settled reading, so strangers will say it two or three ways.
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What they receive
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Marice
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Marices are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Marice are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marice in 2025?
- Marice is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Marice with classmates?
- Marice will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marice? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marice and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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