Marsha
Feminine · “of Mars”
Marsha is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 104,191 girls against 251 boys since 1880.
Marsha is Marcia spelled the way English says it. The original is Latin and looks like it should be said with a hard c; the respelling settles the question on paper, which is exactly what it was invented to do.
How old is the name Marsha?
Marsha first appears in US birth records in 1908 — 117 years ago. The typical Marsha alive today was born around 1952, making them about 73 years old. About 82,500 people named Marsha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marsha most popular?
Marsha peaked in 1950, reaching #68 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 7,423 places below that high. See the whole 1950 chart.
Marsha appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Mars to Marsha
The story of Marsha
Marcius was one of the old Roman family names, and its feminine Marcia was in use across the empire, then carried into Christian Europe by a handful of early martyrs. English borrowed the Latin spelling and pronounced it MAR-shuh, which the spelling does not obviously invite. Twentieth-century American families solved that by writing what they said, and Marsha rose through the 1930s and 1940s to a peak around 1950, at which point it was more common than the Latin original.
Meaning
of Mars
Through Marcia, the feminine of the Roman family name Marcius, which derives from Mars, the god of war. Marcus, Mark, Marcella and Marcia are all built on the same root, so the family is large and its origin is not in doubt.
How the name formed
- Mars
- Marcius
- Marcia
- Marsha
Related forms: Marzia · Marcia · Marsha · Marcia
Pronouncing Marsha
MAR-shuh
Two syllables, stress on the first. The spelling exists precisely so that the sh sound is not in doubt.
Nicknames for Marsha
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
- 1908
- Most girls named
- 19525,583 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #68reached in 1950
- Change vs 2023
- −12.5%14 in 2025, from 16
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.
Marsha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marzia in Italian — related form
- Marcia in Spanish — related form
- Marsha in Russian — same name
- Marcia in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Ohio.
Marshas among us
people named Marsha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Marsha
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 Leona test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marsha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leona climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leona's path sketches the road Marsha is walking now.
Marsha 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
Marsha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marsha 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 fully phonetic, which the Latin original is not.
- It sits in the large and well-documented Mars family alongside Mark, Marcus and Marcella.
- Two firm syllables that pair well with most surnames.
- Marsha and Marcia are both common and sound identical, so the spelling has to be given.
- The name is closely tied to the middle of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Marsha
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marshas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 82,500 people named Marsha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marsha in 2025?
- Marsha ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marsha?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Marsha — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marsha with classmates?
- Marsha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marsha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marsha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marsha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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