How popular is the baby name Marie in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Marie.

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Popularity of the baby name Marie


Posts that mention the name Marie

Popular baby names in Northern Ireland (UK), 2023

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

Northern Ireland — which was partitioned from the rest of Ireland more than a century ago — is a constituent country of the United Kingdom (along with England, Scotland, and Wales).

What were the most popular baby names in Northern Ireland last year? Isla and Noah.

Here are the Northern Ireland’s top 50 girl names and top 50+ boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Isla, 147 baby girls – pronounced IE-la
  2. Fiadh, 138 – pronounced FEE-a
  3. Grace, 137
  4. Emily, 136
  5. Olivia, 126
  6. Lily, 108
  7. Ella, 97
  8. Aoife, 94 – pronounced EE-fa
  9. Amelia, 92
  10. Freya, 90
  11. Charlotte, 87
  12. Annie, 84 (tie)
  13. Sophie, 84 (tie)
  14. Anna, 83
  15. Eabha, 79 – pronounced EY-va
  16. Ellie, 77
  17. Sophia, 76
  18. Evie, 74
  19. Ava, 73
  20. Maisie, 70
  21. Clodagh, 66 – pronounced KLOH-da
  22. Mia, 63 (tie)
  23. Sadie, 63 (tie)
  24. Rosie, 62 (tie)
  25. Ruby, 62 (tie)
  26. Ivy, 60
  27. Molly, 59
  28. Cara, 57 (4-way tie)
  29. Elsie, 57 (4-way tie)
  30. Lottie, 57 (4-way tie)
  31. Meabh, 57 (4-way tie) – pronounced mayv
  32. Zara, 56
  33. Aria, 54
  34. Erin, 53
  35. Ada, 52
  36. Hannah, 51
  37. Saoirse, 50 – pronounced SEER-sha or SAYR-sha
  38. Bonnie, 48
  39. Cora, 47 (4-way tie)
  40. Isabella, 47 (4-way tie)
  41. Lucy, 47 (4-way tie)
  42. Phoebe, 47 (4-way tie)
  43. Katie, 46 (tie)
  44. Niamh, 46 (tie) – pronounced neev or NEE-iv
  45. Rhea, 45 (tie)
  46. Willow, 45 (tie)
  47. Rose, 44
  48. Sofia, 42
  49. Daisy, 41 (tie)
  50. Sienna, 41 (tie)

Boy names

  1. Noah, 152 baby boys
  2. Jack, 146
  3. James, 131
  4. Cillian, 128 – pronounced KIL-ee-an
  5. Charlie, 123
  6. Leo, 119
  7. Oisin, 116 – pronounced UH-sheen or OH-sheen
  8. Oliver, 114
  9. Luca, 108 (tie)
  10. Theo, 108 (tie)
  11. Tommy, 105
  12. Thomas, 103
  13. Jude, 93
  14. Arthur, 91
  15. Alfie, 85
  16. Daniel, 84
  17. Daithi, 82 – pronounced DAH-hee
  18. Harry, 77
  19. Ethan, 74
  20. Caleb, 73
  21. Finn, 71
  22. Henry, 70
  23. Ezra, 67 (tie)
  24. Jacob, 67 (tie)
  25. George, 66 (tie)
  26. Oscar, 66 (tie)
  27. Archie, 64 (3-way tie)
  28. Isaac, 64 (3-way tie)
  29. Ollie, 64 (3-way tie)
  30. Ronan, 63
  31. Lorcan, 62
  32. Reuben, 61 (tie)
  33. Shea, 61 (tie)
  34. Fionn, 60 (tie)
  35. Rory, 60 (tie)
  36. Darragh, 59
  37. Rian, 57
  38. Conor, 55 (tie)
  39. Freddie, 55 (tie)
  40. Arlo, 53 (tie)
  41. Patrick, 53 (tie)
  42. Luke, 52 (tie)
  43. Tom, 52 (tie)
  44. Jonah, 51 (tie)
  45. Odhran, 51 (tie) – pronounced OH-rawn
  46. Joshua, 50
  47. Max, 49 (tie)
  48. Theodore, 49 (tie)
  49. Michael, 47
  50. Mason, 46 (tie)
  51. Teddy, 46 (tie)

The names that qualified as the “top climbers” of 2023 were…

  • Rebecca, Rhea, Aurora, and Raya (for girls), and
  • Leon, Donnacha, Albie, and Seth (for boys).

And here’s a selection of uncommon names that were given to just three babies each:

Rare girl namesRare boy names
Aizal, Blathnaid, Colleen, Dianaimh, Everly, Georgina, Helen, Ivie, Juniper, Keeley, Laney, Meabha, Neala, Orlagh, Paisley, Searlaith, Tillie, Vera, YasmineAngus, Barney, Connlan, Darren, Ewan, Finbarr, Gearoid, Hamish, Jameson, Kieran, Lughan, Milan, Ned, Orhan, Paraic, Ruaidhri, Scott, Tate, Zayn

What about middle names? The top picks for the middle spot were…

  • Rose, Grace, Mary, Elizabeth, and Marie (for girls), and
  • James, John, Patrick, William, and Thomas (for boys).

Finally, here are Northern Ireland’s 2022 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Source: Baby Names 2023 | Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)

What popularized the baby name Marlene in the 1930s?

Actress Marlene Dietrich in the film "The Blue Angel" (1930)
Marlene Dietrich in “The Blue Angel“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Marlene was the fastest-rising baby name of 1931. It went on to see its highest-ever usage several years later, in the mid-1930s:

  • 1937: 5,037 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 40th]
  • 1936: 5,331 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 39th] – peak usage
  • 1935: 4,830 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 39th]
  • 1934: 3,755 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 57th]
  • 1933: 4,045 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 50th]
  • 1932: 3,218 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 78th]
  • 1931: 2,586 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 95th]
  • 1930: 306 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 388th]
  • 1929: 129 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 605th]

Here’s a visual:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Marlene in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Marlene

What was popularizing Marlene during the the 1930s?

German actress Marlene Dietrich (pronounced mar-LAY-nah DEET-rikh).

She became an international star upon the release of Der blaue Engel (translation: The Blue Angel), Germany’s first feature-length sound film, in April of 1930.

Directed by Josef von Sternberg, the movie told the story of a respectable school teacher (played by Emil Jannings) whose obsession with a seductive cabaret singer named Lola Lola (Dietrich) led to his downfall.

Actress Marlene Dietrich in the film "The Blue Angel" (1930)
Marlene Dietrich in “The Blue Angel“

Following the success of Der blaue Engel, both von Sternberg and Dietrich moved to Hollywood to continue “what would become one of the most legendary partnerships in cinema history.”

Over the course of six films produced by Paramount in the 1930s, the pair refined their shared fantasy of pleasure, beauty, and excess. Dietrich’s coolly transgressive mystique was a perfect match for the provocative roles von Sternberg cast her in — including a sultry chanteuse, a cunning spy, and the hedonistic Catherine the Great.

Those six films were…

Dietrich continued to appear on the big screen for decades to come, but reached the height of her fame — in terms of bankability as a movie star — during the 1930s.

She was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich in Berlin in 1901. Her earliest nicknames were Leni and Lene, but, while still a child, she voiced her preference for the contraction Marlene. Here’s her account of the story:

When I created my name, the first person I told was my sister [Elisabeth]. I told her that I didn’t like my name because it was too common a name in Germany.

I told Liesel I had decided to combine Marie and Magdalene to make a new name for myself, Marlene.

My sister said I would have a very peculiar name. No one else in school would have a name like Marlene. That’s just what I wanted to hear.

Dietrich also noted that she saw Marlene as a “glamorous name” with “a kind of French aura.”

What are your thoughts on the name Marlene?

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of The Blue Angel

Baby name story: Victoria Melita

Princess Victoria Melita (1876-1936)
Victoria Melita

In early 1874, Prince Alfred (son of Queen Victoria) married Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna (daughter of Czar Alexander II) in St. Petersburg. Their wedding “directly united the British and Russian royal families for the first time.”

(To mark the occasion, a London bakery invented the Marie biscuit, also known as the Maria cookie.)

Alfred and Maria ended up having five children: Alfred, Marie, Victoria Melita, Alexandra, and Beatrice.

Their third child was born in November of 1876 while her father, a Royal Navy officer, was stationed on the island of Malta (which was then part of the British Empire). The baby girl was named Victoria after her grandmother and Melita after the national personification of Malta, her birthplace.

Where does the name Melita come from?

Most of the time, it derives from the ancient Greek word meli, meaning “honey.” In the case of the allegorical figure, however, it came from the name of an ancient Maltese city.

Melita (or Melite) was the Roman name of the city. The Romans had taken the island from the Phoenicians during the Second Punic War. The Phoenicians’ original name for the city (founded in the 8th century B.C.) was Maleth, meaning “shelter.”

What are your thoughts on the name Melita?

P.S. Victoria Melita’s older sister, Marie, went on to marry the future king of Romania. (Americans became familiar with Marie and two of her children, Nicolae and Ileana, when the three of them toured the U.S. for several weeks in late 1926.) And Victoria Melita’s paternal uncle, the future Edward VII, was the father of Louise, Victoria and Maud, a.k.a., Louvima.

Sources: Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha – Wikipedia, The marriage of Prince Alfred and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna – The Royal Collection Trust, Early Inhabitants – Visit Malta
Image: Victoria Melita autograph card

Popular baby names in Norway, 2022

Flag of Norway
Flag of Norway

Last year, the Scandinavian country of Norway (which shares a border with three other countries: Sweden, Finland, and Russia) welcomed 51,480 babies — over 25,000 girls and nearly 26,500 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Nora for girls, and tie between Jakob and Noah for boys.

Here are Norway’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2022:

Girl Names

  1. Nora/Norah/Noora, 359 baby girls
  2. Emma, 337
  3. Olivia, 331
  4. Ella, 326
  5. Sofie/Sophie, 315
  6. Leah/Lea, 288
  7. Frida, 269
  8. Iben, 266 (tie)
  9. Sofia/Sophia, 266 (tie)
  10. Sara/Sarah/Zara, 262
  11. Maja/Maya/Maia, 258
  12. Ingrid, 253
  13. Alma, 249
  14. Selma, 247
  15. Emilie, 243
  16. Ada, 242
  17. Astrid/Astri, 235
  18. Hedda, 233
  19. Anna, 218
  20. Amalie, 211
  21. Ellinor, 210
  22. Aurora, 208
  23. Hedvig, 205
  24. Tiril/Tirill, 203
  25. Hanna/Hannah, 198
  26. Eva, 195
  27. Jenny, 186
  28. Mia, 184
  29. Vilde, 180
  30. Mathilde/Matilde, 177
  31. Ida, 176
  32. Lilly/Lily, 172
  33. Linnea/Linea/Linnéa, 163 (tie)
  34. Live, 163 (tie)
  35. Marie, 151
  36. Ellie, 150
  37. Sigrid, 149
  38. Thea, 145
  39. Julie, 143
  40. Amelia, 142 (tie)
  41. Luna, 142 (tie)
  42. Amanda, 141 (tie)
  43. Solveig, 141 (tie)
  44. Tuva, 139
  45. Mie, 133
  46. Agnes, 131
  47. Josefine/Josephine, 129
  48. Hermine, 121 (3-way tie)
  49. Signe, 121 (3-way tie)
  50. Ylva, 121 (3-way tie) – based on the Old Norse word ulfr, meaning “wolf.”

Boy Names

  1. Jakob/Jacob, 414 baby boys (tie)
  2. Noah/Noa, 414 (tie)
  3. Emil, 405 (tie)
  4. Lucas/Lukas, 405 (tie)
  5. Oliver, 382
  6. Isak/Isac/Isaac, 381
  7. William, 348
  8. Filip/Philip/Fillip/Phillip, 343
  9. Aksel/Axel, 321 (tie)
  10. Theodor/Teodor, 321 (tie)
  11. Ludvig/Ludvik, 310
  12. Oskar/Oscar, 300
  13. Liam, 282
  14. Johannes, 280
  15. Elias, 277
  16. Kasper/Casper/Kacper, 276
  17. Magnus, 270 (tie)
  18. Tobias, 270 (tie)
  19. Henrik, 263
  20. Mathias/Matias, 247 (tie)
  21. Olav, 247 (tie)
  22. Viktor/Victor/Wiktor, 235
  23. Ulrik, 230
  24. Matheo, 223
  25. Adam, 215
  26. Gustav, 208
  27. Muhammad/Mohammad/Mohammed/Mohamed/Muhammed, 206
  28. Sander, 205
  29. Alfred, 203
  30. Håkon/Haakon, 201 (tie)
  31. Theo/Teo, 201 (tie)
  32. Herman/Hermann, 185
  33. Benjamin, 179
  34. Jonas, 178
  35. Mikkel, 174
  36. Odin, 165
  37. Birk, 164
  38. Johan, 163 (tie)
  39. Leon, 163 (tie)
  40. Felix, 162
  41. Even, 157 (tie)
  42. Sebastian, 157 (tie)
  43. Vetle, 156 – based on the Old Norse word vetrliði, meaning “winter-farer,” and, by extension, “bear cub” (i.e., a bear that has lived one winter).
  44. Iver, 155
  45. Leo, 150
  46. Jens, 144 (tie)
  47. Markus/Marcus, 144 (tie)
  48. Alexander/Aleksander, 140
  49. Kristian/Christian, 133
  50. Sverre, 132 – based on the Old Norse verb sverra, meaning “to spin or swirl about,” and, by extension, “troublemaker.”

The two fastest-climbing names were Birk, which rose from 70th to 37th on the boys’ list, and Hedvig, which rose from 38th to 23rd on the girls’ list.

Home to more than 5.4 million people, Norway is — at the moment — divided into 11 administrative regions, or “counties.” (The original 19 counties were reduced to 11 in 2020; the current 11 counties will be expanded to 15 in 2024.)

Map of the 11 administrative regions of Norway
Norway’s 11 administrative regions

The top baby names within each of Norway’s 11 counties last year were…

Girl namesBoy names
Viken1. Olivia, 85
2. Leah, 76
3. Ella, 75
4. Emma, 71
5. Ingrid, 67		1. Noah, 102
2. Oliver, 97
3. Jakob, 95
4. Theodor, 88
5. Filip/Lucas/Oskar, 81 each (3-way tie)
Oslo1. Sofia, 63
2. Hedvig, 56
3. Nora, 50
4. Sofie, 48
5. Ada/Anna, 47 each (tie)		1. Mohammad, 77
2. Jakob, 65
3. Olav, 59
4. Noah, 57 (tie)
5. William, 57 (tie)
Vestland1. Ella, 52
2. Nora, 51
3. Emma, 50
4. Sara, 43
5. Sofie, 41		1. Emil, 61
2. Jakob, 53
3. Oliver, 48
4. Ulrik, 47
5. Lucas, 44
Rogaland1. Sara, 37
2. Frida, 36
3. Maja, 32 (3-way tie)
4. Nora, 32 (3-way tie)
5. Sofie, 32 (3-way tie)		1. Emil, 43
2. Noah, 42
3. Filip, 38 (tie)
4. Oliver, 38 (tie)
5. Lucas, 35
Trøndelag1. Selma, 33
2. Ada, 32 (4-way tie)
3. Emma, 32 (4-way tie)
4. Leah, 32 (4-way tie)
5. Nora, 32 (4-way tie)		1. Emil, 50
2. Oliver, 47
3. Aksel, 46 (tie)
4. Isak, 46 (tie)
5. Magnus, 38
Vestfold og Telemark1. Nora, 30
2. Olivia, 28
3. Ella, 23
4. Iben, 21
5. Emma/Sofie, 20 each (tie)		1. Emil, 34 (tie)
2. Noah, 34 (tie)
3. Lucas, 33
4. William, 31
5. Jakob, 29
Innlandet1. Aurora, 25 (tie)
2. Sofie, 25 (tie)
3. Ella, 24
4. Emma/Ingrid/Nora/Olivia, 22 each (4-way tie)		1. Emil, 35
2. Lucas, 31
3. Magnus, 29
4. Filip, 28
5. Oliver, 25
Agder1. Emma, 31 (tie)
2. Olivia, 31 (tie)
3. Nora, 27
4. Ella, 26
5. Leah, 24		1. Lucas, 40
2. Isak, 27 (tie)
3. Theodor, 27 (tie)
4. Henrik, 26 (tie)
5. Noah, 26 (tie)
Møre og Romsdal1. Anna, 18 (tie)
2. Nora, 18 (tie)
3. Olivia, 17 (tie)
4. Selma, 17 (tie)
5. Alma/Aurora/Emma, 16 each (3-way tie)		1. Noah, 26
2. Kasper, 22
3. Emil, 20 (tie)
4. Isak, 20 (tie)
5. Lucas, 19
Troms og Finnmark1. Ella, 18
2. Anna, 16
3. Amalie/Astrid/Emilie/Maja/Olivia/Sigrid, 14 each (6-way tie)		1. Jakob, 27
2. Isak, 25
3. Emil, 23
4. Johannes, 22
5. Elias, 19
Nordland1. Nora, 21
2. Ella, 15 (tie)
3. Iben, 15 (tie)
4. Emma/Frida/Ingrid/Signe, 12 each (4-way tie)		1. Isak, 29
2. Jakob, 24
3. Filip/Henrik/William, 17 each (3-way tie)

And what about the names at the other end of the spectrum?

Single-use names were given to nearly 8% of the baby girls and 7% of the baby boys born in Norway last year. We don’t have access to these unique names — the country doesn’t release names given to three or fewer babies per year (due to privacy concerns) — but here’s a selection of the names given to four babies:

Rare girl namesRare boy names
Aase, Agathe, Annabelle, Anneli, Anny, Aud, Azra, Bjørg, Borghild, Cassandra, Cecilia, Daria, Eden, Elizabeth, Emely, Felicia, Gabrielle, Grete, Helen, Helin, Henrikke, Irina, Kamila, Kate, Kaya, Leni, Lidia, Marita, Martyna, Nadine, Norunn, Ragne, Ruby, Savannah, Signy, Silvia, Solvår, SylviaAbbas, Abdul, Adem, Ahmet, Ammar, Ansgar, Are, Arvid, Bogdan, Brynjar, Christer, Dani, Denis, Evald, Fred, Haris, Hassan, Hauk, Hubert, Hussain, Idar, Ingmar, Jamal, Jaran, Jarl, Kenan, Mahad, Mattias, Mehdi, Morgan, Niclas, Nikola, Oddvar, Olivier, Ove, Ravn, Roald, Rolf, Rune, Sean, Sigvald, Stanislaw, Steinar, Svein, Søren, Tønnes, Viggo, Wojciech, Yasin, Yosef, Youssef

Finally, here’s a link to Norway’s 2021 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources: Navn – Statistics Norway, Sjekk listen over de mest populære navnene i 2022 – Statistics Norway, Uvanlige navn – før og nå – Statistics Norway, Births – Statistics Norway, Regions of Norway – Wikipedia, Counties of Norway – Wikipedia, Behind the Name, Nordic Names

Image: Adapted from Flag of Norway (public domain)
Map: Nye fylker by Furfur (public domain)