Marybeth
Feminine · “Mary joined to Beth”
Marybeth is the third generation of one American habit. Mary compounds began around 1890 with Maryanna and Maryjane; they peaked again mid-century with Marybeth, Marylou and Maryjo; and the same structure returned after 2005 with Emmarose and Avagrace. Marybeth's own peak is 1962, inside the American top four hundred and forty-two.
How old is the name Marybeth?
Marybeth first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Marybeth alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 9,000 people named Marybeth are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marybeth most popular?
Marybeth peaked in 1962, reaching #442 nationally. Today it ranks #5917, 5,475 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Elisheva to Marybeth
The story of Marybeth
Mary was the dominant English-language girls' name for so long that compounding became a practical necessity, and the second elements changed with the decades: Anna and Jane in the 1900s, Louise and Josephine in the 1920s, Beth and Lynn in the 1950s and 1960s. Marybeth belongs to the last of those and rose with Elizabeth's own mid-century strength. The compound was frequently written as two words, as a hyphenated name or as one, and American record systems have never handled the distinction consistently, which is why the merged spelling appears in the data at all.
Meaningscholars disagree
Mary joined to Beth — 'God is my oath'
Beth is a short form of Elizabeth, Hebrew Elisheva, which is generally read as 'God is my oath' or 'God is abundance' — the first is the more usual. Mary descends from Hebrew Miryam and its meaning has never been settled, with 'bitter', 'beloved' and an Egyptian derivation all proposed. So one half is reasonably settled and the other is not, which is the ordinary condition of a Mary compound.
How the name formed
- Elisheva
- Elizabeth
- Beth
- Marybeth
Related forms: Mary Beth · Maribeth
Pronouncing Marybeth
MAIR-ee-beth
Three syllables, stress on the first with a secondary stress on the last. Said exactly as the two names in sequence; merging them changes nothing audible.
Nicknames for Marybeth
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
- 1909
- Most girls named
- 1964479 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #442reached in 1962
- Change vs 2023
- +11.1%20 in 2025, from 18
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.
Marybeth in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mary Beth in English — same name
- Maribeth in English — spelling variant
Marybeths among us
people named Marybeth are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was named Marybeth
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Marybeth
- #5917
- Marybeth on the 2025 chart
- #922
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Marybeth went to 20 girls in 2025, but Maribeth is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 38, which makes it the 922nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,995 places above the chart.
- Marybeth20
- Maribeth18
About 1 girl in 42,297 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 80,363 for Marybeth 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 Ursula test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marybeth's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ursula climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ursula's path sketches the road Marybeth is walking now.
Marybeth 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
Marybeth beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marybeth in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both halves are complete, universally known names available as fallbacks.
- It has a documented place in a century of American naming tradition.
- The pronunciation requires no explanation anywhere in the English-speaking world.
- Mary Beth, Mary-Beth and Marybeth all circulate as one name and systems handle them differently.
- Its American curve is tightly mid-century, which dates a bearer.
- Mary is now uncommon on children, so the name reads as inherited.
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What they receive
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Marybeth
Feminine · #5917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marybeths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,000 people named Marybeth are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Marybeth?
- Marybeth is the most-used spelling in US records — 20 of the 38 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Maribeth.
- How popular is the name Marybeth in 2025?
- Marybeth ranks #5917 among US girl names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marybeth?
- About 1 in every 80,363 US girls born in 2025 was named Marybeth — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marybeth with classmates?
- Marybeth will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marybeth
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elda#5917 · Saloma#5917 · Fawn#5917 · Sarafina#5917 · Jaymie#5917 · Jania#5917 · Kimberlynn#5917 · Patsy#5917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marybeth? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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