Martha
Masculine · “lady”
Martha is given to girls far more often — 551,741 girls against 1,991 boys since 1880. See Martha as a girl name
In the south of France they will tell you this name belongs to the woman who tamed a dragon. Medieval legend has her arriving by boat after the crucifixion, finding a monster eating travelers at a river crossing, and subduing it with holy water and her belt rather than a weapon — and a town on the Rhône is named after the creature to this day.
How old is the name Martha?
Martha first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Martha alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 800 people named Martha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Martha most popular?
Martha peaked in 1888, reaching #609 nationally. See the whole 1888 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From marta to Martha
The story of Martha
The most famous bearer of the name in modern times was a bird. She was the last passenger pigeon alive, a species that had numbered in the billions and darkened the sky over North America for days at a time within living memory, and she died in Cincinnati Zoo in the autumn of nineteen fourteen. The keepers knew what she was and there was nothing to be done; her body was frozen into a block of ice and sent to the Smithsonian. It is one of the very few extinctions where the exact moment is known, because somebody was standing there watching.
Meaning
lady, mistress of the house
Aramaic, and the feminine of the ordinary word for a lord or master. It is one of very few New Testament names that is Aramaic rather than Hebrew or Greek, which suits the character it belongs to.
How the name formed
- marta
- Martha
Related forms: Marta · Marta · Martha · Marta
Pronouncing Martha
MAR-thuh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. Most European languages drop the h entirely and say MAR-tah, which English does not.
Nicknames for Martha
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 194045 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #609reached in 1888
- Change vs 1993
- +57.1%11 in 1995, from 7
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.
Martha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marta in Spanish — same name
- Marta in Italian — same name
- Martha in German — same name
- Marta in Polish — same name
Marthas among us
people named Martha 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
Martha 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 recognized across Europe with almost no change of spelling.
- The meaning is dignified and easy to explain without etymology.
- It has stayed in continuous use for the whole length of the record.
- Its peak was very early and the name carries that age for some ears.
- The biblical character is proverbially the busy one, which colors the name.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
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Martha
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Marthas 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 Martha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Martha in 2025?
- Martha is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Martha with classmates?
- Martha 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 Martha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Martha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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