Marlow
Feminine · Old English roots
Marlow is given to both — 1,903 girls and 2,193 boys since 1880. See Marlow as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Marlow began as a spot on the Thames in Buckinghamshire, a name the Domesday surveyors wrote down as Merelafan — land left behind when a pool drains away. From the map it became a surname, and from the surname a first name, arriving in America the way Winslow and Harlow did. Two syllables, stress on the first, nothing in it to trip over when read aloud.
How old is the name Marlow?
Marlow first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Marlow is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,900 people named Marlow are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marlow most popular?
Marlow peaked in 2025, reaching #1163 nationally. Today it ranks #1163, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mere + lāf (Old English) to Marlow
The story of Marlow
Marlow is first an English place: two villages on the Thames west of London, recorded in the eleventh-century Domesday Book as Merelafan. People who came from there were called Marlow or Marlowe, and the surname spread through England and then across the Atlantic. Joseph Conrad gave the exact spelling to Charles Marlow, the sailor who narrates Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim, and the playwright Christopher Marlowe carried the -e form in Elizabethan London. Its life as a given name in the United States is much newer, part of the long American habit of moving surnames to the front — a route that has always run to both boys and girls.
Meaning
Land remaining after a pool was drained
From Old English mere, 'pool, lake', and lāf, 'remnant, what is left'. The reading comes from English place-name scholarship on Great and Little Marlow in Buckinghamshire.
How the name formed
- mere + lāfOld English
- Merelafan
- Marlowplace name
- Marlow / Marlowesurname
- Marlowgiven name
Related forms: Marlowe · Marlo
Pronouncing Marlow
MAR-loh
Stress on the first syllable, rhyming with 'harlow'. The spelling gives the pronunciation away, so strangers seldom guess wrong.
Nicknames for Marlow
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
- 1963
- Most girls named
- 2025199 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1163reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +14.4%199 in 2025, from 174
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.
Marlow in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marlowe in English — spelling variant
- Marlo in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Marlows among us
people named Marlow are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 8,077 born in 2025 was named Marlow
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 Alishia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marlow's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alishia climbed just as high around 1986, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alishia's path sketches the road Marlow is walking now.
Marlow is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Marlow is headed
Marlow looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 21% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Marlow beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marlow in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling is already familiar from the map and from the surname, so most people can read it correctly on sight.
- Two clear syllables with the stress up front — easy to say, easy to hear across a room.
- Comes with ready-made short forms in Marlo, Mar and Lo, none of which need explaining.
- Still uncommon enough that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate, while being nothing anyone has to ask twice about.
- Marlow and Marlowe are both in use, so expect the follow-up question 'with or without the e?' for life. Choosing one and being consistent is most of the fix.
- In American records it goes mainly to girls, but the surname origin is neutral and it reaches boys too. Either way, some people will assume the other, and a boy named Marlow will be in the smaller group.
- The name's rise here is recent, so nearly everyone who shares it is a child. That means no adult namesakes to lean on for now, and a name that reads clearly as of this moment.
- Spoken quickly it can be heard as Marlo or Marla, which is worth knowing when leaving it on a phone message.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Marlow 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 Marlow? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Marlow
Feminine · Old English roots · #1163 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marlows are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Marlow are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marlow in 2025?
- Marlow ranks #1163 among US girl names in 2025, with 199 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marlow?
- About 1 in every 8,077 US girls born in 2025 was named Marlow — 199 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marlow with classmates?
- Marlow will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marlow
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Winslow#1163 · Raylee#1163 · Bria#1163 · Dalary#1163 · Heavenly#1163 · Essence#1163 · Ayat#1160 · Ayana#1160
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marlow? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marlow and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle