Marvell
Masculine · “Latin "wonder”
Marvell is given to both — 1,157 boys and 323 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Andrew Marvell was known in his lifetime as a Member of Parliament and a satirist, not a poet. His lyric verse was published after his death in 1681 and largely ignored until T. S. Eliot wrote an essay on him in 1921 — a poet who took two hundred and fifty years to arrive.
How old is the name Marvell?
Marvell first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Marvell alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 1,000 people named Marvell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marvell most popular?
Marvell peaked in 1971, reaching #1916 nationally. Today it ranks #7679, 5,763 places below that high. See the whole 1971 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mirabilia to Marvell
The story of Marvell
Marvell served Hull in Parliament for nearly twenty years and was a colleague of Milton in the Commonwealth government, and his contemporaries knew him for prose controversy and political satire. The Miscellaneous Poems appeared three years after his death, printed by a woman claiming to be his widow, and attracted little notice; the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had almost no use for him. Eliot's 1921 essay, published on the tercentenary of his birth, made the case for the metaphysical poets and put To His Coy Mistress and The Garden into the canon within a decade. The American given name Marvell peaks in 1971.
Meaning
Latin "wonder, marvel"
From Old French merveille, from Latin mirabilia, wonderful things, from mirari, to wonder at — the same root as miracle, mirror and admire. As a surname it was probably a byname for someone remarkable or an occupational name for a performer. The doubled ll is the standard surname spelling; the ordinary English word has one.
How the name formed
- mirabilia
- merveille
- Marvell
Related forms: Marvel · Merveille
Pronouncing Marvell
mar-VELL
Two syllables, stress on the second, the normal pattern for English names ending in -ell. The ordinary word marvel is MAR-vul with front stress, so the name and the word are said differently.
Nicknames for Marvell
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
- 1920
- Most boys named
- 200733 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1916reached in 1971
- Change vs 2022
- +11.1%10 in 2025, from 9
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.
Marvell in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marvel in English — spelling variant
- Merveille in French — related form
Marvells among us
people named Marvell are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 170,808 born in 2025 was named Marvell
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Marvell
- #7679
- Marvell on the 2025 chart
- #899
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Marvell went to 10 boys in 2025, but Marvel is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 29, which makes it the 899th most-given boys’ name of the year — 6,780 places above the chart.
- Marvel19
- Marvell10
About 1 boy in 58,899 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 170,808 for Marvell itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Nazario test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marvell's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nazario climbed just as high around 1947, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nazario's path sketches the road Marvell is walking now.
Marvell 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
Marvell beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marvell in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, positive and transparent.
- Marv and Vell work as short forms.
- It sits in a familiar American sound family with Martell and Montell.
- It shares a sound with a comic-book publisher.
- Marvel with one l is the ordinary English word.
- The stress differs from the common noun, which causes correction.
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What they receive
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Marvell
Masculine · #7679 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marvells 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 Marvell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Marvell?
- Marvell is one of 2 recorded spellings. Marvel is the more common one — 19 births in 2025 against 10 for Marvell.
- How popular is the name Marvell in 2025?
- Marvell ranks #7679 among US boy names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marvell?
- About 1 in every 170,808 US boys born in 2025 was named Marvell — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marvell with classmates?
- Marvell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marvell
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Early#7679 · Obie#7679 · Huston#7679 · Knute#7679 · Rance#7679 · Blain#7679 · Doyle#7679 · Millard#7679
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marvell? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marvell and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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