Mary
Feminine
Mary is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 4,141,481 girls against 15,173 boys since 1880. See Mary as a boy name
Mary is the English form of one of the oldest continuously used names in the Western world, carried from Hebrew into Greek, into Latin, into nearly every European language, and finally into English. It has been spelled the same way for centuries, needs no explanation anywhere, and still arrives in the mouth as two soft syllables that almost every language has a version of.
How old is the name Mary?
Mary was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Mary alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 1,789,000 people named Mary are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mary most popular?
Mary peaked in 1880, reaching #1 nationally. Today it ranks #125, 124 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
From Miryam to Mary
The story of Mary
The name begins as Miryam in the Hebrew Bible, borne by the sister of Moses. When Jewish scholars translated those scriptures into Greek, they rendered it Mariam and Maria, and the Greek New Testament used the same forms — which is how the name spread with Christianity across the Roman world. Latin Maria became French Marie, and Marie became Mary in English, where it settled into a fixed spelling and stayed there. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was the default name for English-speaking women, worn by the author of Frankenstein and by the American painter of mothers and children, and it passed to the United States with essentially every immigrant tradition that arrived.
Meaningscholars disagree
Most often read as "bitter" or "beloved"
The name goes back to Hebrew Miryam, and scholars have never agreed on its root. The traditional reading connects it to a Hebrew word for bitterness; others trace it to an Egyptian element meaning "beloved" or "love", which fits the Egyptian setting of the earliest bearer in the Hebrew Bible. "Rebellious" and "wished-for child" have also been proposed. An unusually rich argument for such a short name, and none of the readings has won.
Cultural footprint
Mary Shelley (b. 1797) — Wrote Frankenstein at 18
Mary Wollstonecraft (b. 1759) — Wrote the founding text of feminism in 1792
Mary Cassatt (b. 1844) — Impressionist painter of mothers and children
Mary Pickford (b. 1892) — Silent-era superstar who co-founded United Artists
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Miryam
- Mariam
- Maria
- Marie
- Mary
Related forms: Maria · Marie · Miriam · Maryam · Máire · Mair
Pronouncing Mary
MAIR-ee
In much of the United States it rhymes with "merry" and "marry", since those vowels have merged for most American speakers. Elsewhere in the English-speaking world the first syllable stays distinct, closer to MAY-ree.
Nicknames for Mary
High
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 192173,984 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- +5.2%2,230 in 2025, from 2,119
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.
Mary in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maria in Spanish, Italian, German, Polish — same name
- Marie in French — same name
- Miriam in Hebrew — same name
- Maryam in Arabic — same name
- Máire in Irish — same name
- Mair in Welsh — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Alabama, Georgia.
Marys among us
people named Mary are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 721 born in 2025 was named Mary
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Mary has held the top-100 across 13 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Mary is headed
Mary should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Mary beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mary in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled and pronounced correctly on first hearing almost everywhere in the English-speaking world.
- One of the longest unbroken records of any name in Europe, in continuous use since antiquity.
- Has a native form in nearly every European language, plus Hebrew and Arabic, so it travels without becoming foreign.
- Comes with a deep bench of established short forms — Molly, Polly, Mae — none of which needed to be invented.
- Works equally as a first name and as a traditional middle name, including in compounds.
- The name is inseparable from Christian tradition, above all from the mother of Jesus. For many families that is the reason to choose it; if your family has no connection to that, expect the association to be assumed anyway.
- Its bearers today skew heavily toward older generations, so a child named Mary will likely be the only one in her class while every adult she meets knows the name well — a slightly odd combination of rare and utterly familiar.
- In most American accents it sounds identical to "merry", which occasionally makes for confusion in December.
- With so many Marys in most family trees, you may find the name is already taken by a relative — worth checking before you commit to it as a first name rather than a middle.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Mary to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Mary
Feminine · #125 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,789,000 people named Mary are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mary in 2025?
- Mary ranks #125 among US girl names in 2025, with 2,230 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mary?
- About 1 in every 721 US girls born in 2025 was named Mary — 2,230 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mary with classmates?
- Mary will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mary
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Scottie#126 · Magnolia#124 · Elsie#123 · Valerie#127 · Ariana#128 · Emerson#122 · Serenity#129 · Hadley#121
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mary? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mary and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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