Marina
Feminine · Latin roots · “Of the sea”
Marina is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 39,514 girls against 51 boys since 1880.
Marina is the Latin word for "of the sea" turned into a name, and it has stayed almost untouched for close to two thousand years — Italian, Spanish, Greek, Russian and English all spell it the same way. Shakespeare gave it to the daughter in Pericles who is born during a storm at sea. Three syllables, all of them open, with the stress landing in the middle.
How old is the name Marina?
Marina first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Marina alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 36,500 people named Marina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marina most popular?
Marina peaked in 1994, reaching #218 nationally. Today it ranks #601, 383 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Where it comes from
From mare (Latin, "sea") to Marina
The story of Marina
The name begins as ordinary Latin: marinus, "belonging to the sea," which became the masculine name Marinus and the feminine Marina. Early Christian veneration carried it out of Latin and into Greek and then Slavic use, and it settled deeply into the Orthodox world, where it has been in continuous use for centuries. Western Europe kept it too, especially in Italy and Spain, where the spelling never needed adjusting. It reached American records in the nineteenth century and has been present, quietly and without a break, ever since.
Meaning
Of the sea
From Latin marinus, the adjective formed from mare, "sea" — Marina is its feminine form.
How the name formed
- mareLatin, "sea"
- marinus
- Marinus
- Marina
Related forms: Marina · Marina · Марина · Μαρίνα · Marinela · Maryna
Pronouncing Marina
muh-REE-nuh
Stress falls on the middle syllable. Spanish, Italian and Russian speakers say it with fuller vowels — mah-REE-nah — which is the same name, not a correction.
Nicknames for Marina
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
- 1886
- Most girls named
- 19951,104 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #218reached in 1994
- Change vs 2022
- +6.6%488 in 2025, from 458
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.
Marina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marina in Italian — same name
- Marina in Spanish — same name
- Марина in Russian — transliteration
- Μαρίνα in Greek — transliteration
- Marinela in Romanian — related form
- Maryna in Polish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Marinas among us
people named Marina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,294 born in 2025 was named Marina
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 Francine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Francine climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Francine's path sketches the road Marina is walking now.
Marina 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 Marina is headed
Marina 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.
Marina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One spelling works in English, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Russian, with no adaptation needed at a border or on a form.
- Reads correctly at first sight for most English speakers, because the word marina is already familiar.
- Long-established short forms — Rina, Mari, Marinka — rather than nicknames someone has to invent.
- A documented line running from Latin through Greek and Slavic use into English, unbroken.
- It is also the English word for a boat harbor, so the association is instant and generally pleasant — but the name will occasionally be read as a place before a person.
- Expect a lifetime of small mix-ups with Maria, Mariana and Marine, all of which sound close and none of which are the same name.
- In bilingual families the vowels shift — muh-REE-nuh at school, mah-REE-nah at home. Both are correct, and children who grow up with two versions tend to manage them easily.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Marina to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Marina
Feminine · Latin roots · #601 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 36,500 people named Marina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marina in 2025?
- Marina ranks #601 among US girl names in 2025, with 488 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marina?
- About 1 in every 3,294 US girls born in 2025 was named Marina — 488 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marina with classmates?
- Marina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emelia#601 · Seraphina#599 · Elliott#599 · Aliana#603 · Alejandra#604 · Mylah#604 · Loretta#606 · Avianna#595
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marina and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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