Marine
Feminine · “of the sea”
Marine is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 990 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
Marine is a French woman's name and an English military one, and the collision is complete. The French is the feminine of Marin, from the Latin marinus, of the sea — a saint's name and an entirely ordinary choice in France. The English word came from the same root by way of soldiers who served aboard ships, and in America that meaning arrives first and does not leave.
How old is the name Marine?
Marine first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Marine alive today was born around 1940, making them about 85 years old. About 500 people named Marine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marine most popular?
Marine peaked in 1934, reaching #1292 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 11,916 places below that high. See the whole 1934 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From marinus to Marine
The story of Marine
Marinus was a common late Roman name and became a Christian one through several martyrs; Marina, the feminine, spread across Europe and is still widely used in Italy, Spain, Greece and Russia. French produced Marine, which is genuinely popular there and carries no military sense at all — the French for a marine is a different word. In American records the name appears from 1900 and peaked in the 1930s, arriving with French-speaking families, and the English homograph has kept it rare here ever since.
Meaning
of the sea
From the Latin marinus, from mare, the sea. The name Marinus belonged to several early saints, including the hermit whose settlement became the republic of San Marino, and the feminine Marina and its French form Marine both descend from it.
How the name formed
- marinus
- Marina
- Marine
Related forms: Marine · Marina · Marina · Marina · Marina
Pronouncing Marine
mah-REEN
Two syllables with the stress at the back, following the French, and the ending rhyming with seen. English speakers reading the letters produce the military word, which is said the same way — so the pronunciation is not the problem; the meaning is.
Nicknames for Marine
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
- 1900
- Most girls named
- 193431 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1292reached in 1934
- Change vs 2020
- −40.0%6 in 2025, from 10
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.
Marine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marine in French — same name
- Marina in Italian — same name
- Marina in Russian — same name
- Marina in Spanish — same name
- Marina in Greek — same name
Marines among us
people named Marine are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Marine
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 Lorette test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marine's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lorette climbed just as high around 1909, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lorette's path sketches the road Marine is walking now.
Marine 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
Marine beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marine in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is entirely standard in France and needs no explanation there.
- Rina and Mari are both usable and belong to different registers.
- The meaning is two words long and impossible to forget.
- It is recorded for boys as well as girls, following the Latin original.
- In America the word means a member of the Marine Corps, and that reading arrives first every time.
- Marina is far commoner in English-speaking countries and will be written instead.
- It is also an ordinary English adjective about the sea, which adds a second collision.
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What they receive
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Marine
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Marine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marine in 2025?
- Marine ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marine?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Marine — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marine with classmates?
- Marine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marine
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marine? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marine and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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