Marten
Masculine · “of Mars”
Marten is a Dutch and Frisian form of Martin, and its best-known bearer drew one of the most loved comic strips in the Netherlands. Marten Toonder created Tom Poes, a small white cat, and his friend the bear Olivier B. Bommel, and some of the words he invented for them became ordinary Dutch.
How old is the name Marten?
Marten first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Marten alive today was born around 1967, making them about 58 years old. About 400 people named Marten are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marten most popular?
Marten peaked in 1963, reaching #1957 nationally. See the whole 1963 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Martinus to Marten
The story of Marten
Marten Toonder was born in Rotterdam in 1912 and began the Tom Poes strip in 1941, during the German occupation; it ran in Dutch newspapers for more than four decades. Bommel's pompous speech and the strip's invented vocabulary seeped into the language, and minkukel, for a small-minded person, passed into ordinary Dutch. In English the same six letters spell an unrelated word: the marten, a tree-climbing cousin of the weasel, whose name came through Old French martre from a Germanic word and has nothing to do with Mars. Dutch calls that animal a marter, so the clash exists only in English.
Meaning
of Mars, through Martin
Marten is Martin in a Dutch and Frisian form; the usual Dutch spelling is Maarten. Martin comes from Latin Martinus, belonging to Mars.
How the name formed
- Martinus
- Martin
- Maarten
- Marten
Related forms: Maarten · Mårten · Martin · Martin
Pronouncing Marten
MAR-tuhn
Dutch says it with a short a and a weak second syllable. In American speech it sounds the same as Martin.
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 196317 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1957reached in 1963
- Change vs 2023
- +16.7%7 in 2024, from 6
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.
Marten in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maarten in Dutch — spelling variant
- Mårten in Swedish — related form
- Martin in English — related form
- Martin in French — related form
Martens among us
people named Marten 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
Marten 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
- Sounds the same as Martin, so it is never hard to say.
- A distinct Dutch and Frisian spelling with a real cultural figure behind it.
- Two syllables, six letters, no silent letters.
- Almost everyone will write Martin unless told, and the correction will come up for life.
- English readers who notice the spelling will think of the animal; it is a handsome, tree-climbing one, and as associations go it is a mild one.
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Marten
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Martens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Marten are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marten in 2025?
- Marten is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Marten with classmates?
- Marten 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 Marten? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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