Martavius
Masculine
Roman families ran out of first names. There were only about eighteen in common use, so parents numbered their children instead: Quintus the fifth, Sextus the sixth, Septimus the seventh, Octavius the eighth, Decimus the tenth. Those numbers are still in circulation as names two thousand years later.
How old is the name Martavius?
Martavius first appears in US birth records in 1982 — 43 years ago. The typical Martavius alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 800 people named Martavius are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Martavius most popular?
Martavius peaked in 1996, reaching #2073 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 6,837 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From octavus to Martavius
Our story of Martavius
The Roman praenomen was an unusually poor system. Perhaps eighteen names were in general use, of which about a dozen were common, so within any family the same handful repeated endlessly and the real identification was carried by the clan name and the branch name. Numbering was one solution: Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, Octavius, Decimus, and for daughters simply Prima, Secunda, Tertia. Some of the numbers had probably lost their literal force by the late Republic and were just names, in the way that a modern Octavius is unlikely to be an eighth child. What is striking is which ones survived. Quintus, Octavius and Septimus persisted through Latin Christianity into modern European use; the days and months went the same way, so that our tenth month is still called the eighth. Roman counting outlived the Romans by being embedded in names and calendars nobody wanted to renumber.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Martavius as a whole has no inherited etymology. Its ending is borrowed from Octavius, a Roman name from octavus, eighth. The opening Mar- most likely comes from Marcus or Martin, or is simply a prefix. The compound is American, and the -tavius ending has been productive in it since the 1980s. The peak is 1996.
How the name formed
- octavus
- Octavius
- Martavius
Related forms: Martavious · Octavius
Pronouncing Martavius
mar-TAY-vee-us
Four syllables, stress on the second. Martavius and Martavious are homophones, the second spelling adding an o that changes nothing.
Nicknames for Martavius
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
- 1982
- Most boys named
- 199641 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2073reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- −20.0%8 in 2025, from 10
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.
Martavius in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Martavious in English — spelling variant
- Octavius in English — related form
Martaviuss among us
people named Martavius are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Martavius
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 Jozef test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Martavius's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jozef climbed just as high around 1918, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jozef's path sketches the road Martavius is walking now.
Martavius 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
Martavius beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Martavius in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The borrowed Latin ending gives it a formal, classical shape.
- Tay and Tavi both work as short forms.
- The stress falls clearly on the second syllable.
- Four syllables is long for everyday use.
- Martavious is an equally common spelling.
- The Latin ending is decorative and carries none of its original sense.
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What they receive
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Martavius
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Martaviuss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Martavius are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Martavius in 2025?
- Martavius ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Martavius?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Martavius — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Martavius with classmates?
- Martavius will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Martavius
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Martavius? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Martavius and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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