Mario
Feminine · “of the gens Maria”
Mario is given to boys far more often — 151,310 boys against 1,093 girls since 1880. See Mario as a boy name
Mario is a Roman family name that has been in continuous use for two thousand years and, since the 1980s, the name of the most recognizable fictional character on earth. The second fact usually swamps the first. It is worth knowing that the character is named after a real man who was not a plumber, and that the name was already at its American peak before the game arrived.
How old is the name Mario?
Mario first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Mario alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 1,000 people named Mario are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mario most popular?
Mario peaked in 1973, reaching #2309 nationally. See the whole 1973 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Marius, a Roman clan name of unknown origin to Mario
The story of Mario
Nintendo's American staff were working in a rented warehouse near Seattle, and the character in their new arcade game had no name — the design documents called him Jumpman. The story their own people have told for decades is that the landlord turned up during a meeting to press them about the overdue rent, that his name was Mario Segale, and that the character was named after him half as a joke. Segale went back to his construction business and spent the rest of his life declining to make anything of it, saying he would rather be known for what he built. He is one of the few people who could have been famous and simply chose not to be.
Meaningscholars disagree
of the gens Maria, a Roman clan name
Mario descends from the Latin Marius, the name of a Roman clan rather than a word with a meaning. Attempts have been made to connect it to Mars, the god of war, and to an older Etruscan root, and neither can be demonstrated — Roman clan names are frequently older than the language that carried them. What Mario is not, despite the resemblance, is a masculine form of Maria. The two names arrive from different directions and only look like a pair in modern Italian.
How the name formed
- Marius, a Roman clan name of unknown origin
- Mario as the Italian and Spanish form
- carried to America with Italian migration
- an American peak at the start of the 1980s
- a video game character takes the name worldwide
Related forms: Marius · Mario · Marius · Mario
Pronouncing Mario
MAR-ee-oh
Three syllables with the stress at the front. Italian and Spanish speakers give the first vowel a purer sound and roll the r; the American reading is close enough that nobody is ever misunderstood.
Nicknames for Mario
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
- 1917
- Most girls named
- 198743 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2309reached in 1973
- Change vs 2006
- +20.0%6 in 2008, from 5
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.
Mario in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marius in Latin — same name
- Mario in Spanish — same name
- Marius in French — same name
- Mario in Portuguese — same name
Marios among us
people named Mario 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
Mario 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
- It is recognized instantly in English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese without any change of spelling.
- The sound is warm and open, and the name has never been tied to a single generation.
- It carries a Roman history, an Italian-American one and a global one, and a child can pick whichever he likes.
- The video game character is the first association for everyone under fifty, and the jokes are unavoidable in childhood.
- It is stepping back from its American peak, so it will read as slightly of its parents' generation for a while.
- The meaning cannot be given honestly, because Roman clan names generally do not have one.
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What they receive
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Mario
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Marios are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Mario are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mario in 2025?
- Mario is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Mario with classmates?
- Mario 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 Mario? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mario and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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