Marlow
Masculine · “land remaining after a lake drains”
Marlow is given to both — 2,193 boys and 1,903 girls since 1880. See Marlow as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Marlow is the leavings of a lake — the Old English mere and laf — land left behind when water drained away.
How old is the name Marlow?
Marlow first appears in US birth records in 1910 — 115 years ago. The typical Marlow alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 1,600 people named Marlow are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marlow most popular?
Marlow peaked in 1937, reaching #1288 nationally. Today it ranks #2304, 1,016 places below that high. See the whole 1937 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mere laf to Marlow
The story of Marlow
Marlow on the Thames is named for the ground left when a lake drained — an unusually specific place name. Christopher Marlowe wrote Doctor Faustus and was killed in a tavern at twenty-nine. Conrad named a narrator Marlow. It entered American given-name use for both sexes and is in current use.
Meaning
land remaining after a lake drains
From the Old English mere, 'lake' or 'pool', and laf, 'remnant' or 'what is left'. Marlow in Buckinghamshire sits on such ground by the Thames. The construction is unusual and well documented. Christopher Marlowe carried the surname.
How the name formed
- mere laf
- Marlow
Related forms: Marlowe · Marlo
Pronouncing Marlow
MAR-loh
Two syllables, stress on the first. All the spellings of the sound are said identically.
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
- 1910
- Most boys named
- 202560 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1288reached in 1937
- Change vs 2023
- +3.4%60 in 2025, from 58
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, New York, Texas.
Marlows among us
people named Marlow are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 28,468 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 Lamon 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: Lamon climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lamon's path sketches the road Marlow is walking now.
Marlow 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 Marlow is headed
Marlow looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 20% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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 boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That the name means land left by a drained lake is a first-rate etymology.
- Christopher Marlowe is a first-rate bearer.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It reads as a surname and is used for both sexes.
- Marlowe and Marlo are both in circulation.
- It is very new as a given name.
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What they receive
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Marlow
Masculine · #2304 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 1,600 people named Marlow are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marlow in 2025?
- Marlow ranks #2304 among US boy names in 2025, with 60 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marlow?
- About 1 in every 28,468 US boys born in 2025 was named Marlow — 60 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.
Zian#2304 · Avion#2304 · Lex#2304 · Joab#2304 · Ahmari#2304 · Daxon#2304 · Enoc#2304 · Paris#2304
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marlow? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marlow and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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