Maryland
Feminine · “the land of Mary”
Maryland is given to both — 983 girls and 316 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Maryland passed the first religious toleration law in English America and then repealed it. The Act Concerning Religion of 1649 guaranteed freedom of worship to anybody who believed in Jesus — which was radical for the time and narrow by ours — and it lasted about five years before a Puritan assembly threw it out.
How old is the name Maryland?
Maryland first appears in US birth records in 1901 — 124 years ago. The typical Maryland alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 500 people named Maryland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maryland most popular?
Maryland peaked in 1927, reaching #1404 nationally. See the whole 1927 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a colony founded as a refuge for English Catholics to Maryland
The story of Maryland
The colony was founded as a refuge for English Catholics who could not worship legally at home, and it worked for a generation by keeping quiet — the instructions to the first settlers told them to practice their religion privately and give no offense. The toleration act was an attempt to make the arrangement permanent, and it was repealed the moment the balance of population shifted. Catholics in Maryland were then barred from voting and from public worship for most of a century in the colony founded for them.
Meaning
the land of Mary
The colony was named after a queen, and the name has been used as a woman's first name in America since the nineteenth century, on the same pattern as Georgia, Virginia and Carolina. The state is the only one named after a living Catholic queen, which was the point: the proprietor was Catholic and needed the name to say so without saying so.
How the name formed
- a colony founded as a refuge for English Catholics
- named after a queen in 1632
- the toleration act passed in 1649 and repealed within five years
- American place names become women's names
- Maryland appears in the record in the 1900s
Related forms: Marilyn · Mary
Pronouncing Maryland
MERR-uh-lund
Three syllables with the stress at the front, exactly as the state is said by the people who live in it. Outsiders often give the last syllable more weight than it wants.
Nicknames for Maryland
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
- 1901
- Most girls named
- 192733 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1404reached in 1927
- Change vs 2005
- −16.7%5 in 2020, 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.
Maryland in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marilyn in English — related form
- Mary in English — related form
Marylands among us
people named Maryland 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
Maryland 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
- Mary is available inside it and needs no explanation anywhere.
- It is read correctly at sight by any American.
- It works for a child of either sex, and the record carries it on both sides.
- It is the name of a state, and that is the association everybody will have.
- There is no meaning beyond the dedication to a queen.
- It belongs to the first half of the last century.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Maryland
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Marylands are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Maryland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Maryland in 2025?
- Maryland is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Maryland with classmates?
- Maryland will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maryland? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maryland and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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