Marque
Masculine · “a mark or sign”
Marque is given to both — 1,035 boys and 140 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
A letter of marque was the piece of paper that separated a privateer from a pirate. Both attacked shipping; one had a license from a government saying which ships he was allowed to attack, and the license was called a letter of marque. Without it the same man was hanged.
How old is the name Marque?
Marque first appears in US birth records in 1951 — 74 years ago. The typical Marque alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 1,000 people named Marque are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marque most popular?
Marque peaked in 1988, reaching #1618 nationally. See the whole 1988 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Germanic word for a mark or boundary to Marque
The story of Marque
The system ran for six hundred years. A government at war would issue letters of marque to private ship-owners, authorizing them to attack enemy merchant vessels and keep a share of what they took; the crown got the rest and did not have to pay for a navy. Privateers won and lost real battles, and a great many respectable colonial American fortunes began with one. The practice was abolished by international agreement in the middle of the nineteenth century, which is roughly the point at which the difference between a licensed privateer and a pirate stopped being a matter of paperwork and started being a matter of law.
Meaning
a mark or sign
The French word means a mark, and it comes from the same Germanic root as the English word. In American use as a first name it is more likely to be a respelling of Mark or Marcus, written with a French ending, than a deliberate reference to the word. The two possibilities cannot be separated in the record, and the family may not have distinguished them either.
How the name formed
- a Germanic word for a mark or boundary
- French marque and the letters of marque
- privateering abolished by treaty in the 1850s
- the word survives in English for a brand or model
- used as an American first name from the 1950s
Related forms: Marque · Mark · Marcus
Pronouncing Marque
MARK
One syllable in English, identical to Mark; the French qu says a plain k and the final e is silent. Some readers produce mar-KAY, which the letters do not actually support.
Nicknames for Marque
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
- 1951
- Most boys named
- 198844 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1618reached in 1988
- Change vs 2022
- −37.5%5 in 2023, from 8
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.
Marque in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marque in French — same name
- Mark in English — related form
- Marcus in Latin — related form
Marques among us
people named Marque 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
Marque 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 short and strong while looking entirely unlike any other spelling.
- It works for a child of either sex, and the record carries it on both sides.
- Mark is available as a plain fallback that needs no explanation.
- It will be read as mar-KAY by people meeting it for the first time.
- In English the word now mostly means a make of car, which is hard to unhear.
- It reads as a French affectation to readers who know the word.
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Marque
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Marques 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 Marque are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marque in 2025?
- Marque is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Marque with classmates?
- Marque will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marque? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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