How popular is the baby name Marks 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 Marks.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Marks


Posts that mention the name Marks

Popular baby names in Latvia, 2018-2022

Flag of Latvia
Flag of Latvia

From 2018 to 2022, the European country of Latvia — which shares land borders with Estonia and Lithuania (the other two Baltic states) as well as Russia and Belarus — welcomed more than 89,000 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Sofija and Olivers.

Here are Latvia’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names for the five-year period (2018-2022):

Girl names

  1. Sofija
  2. Emilija*
  3. Alise
  4. Anna
  5. Marta
  6. Amelija*
  7. Paula
  8. Emma
  9. Elizabete
  10. Darta* – the Latvian form of Dorothea
  11. Estere
  12. Elza
  13. Mia
  14. Viktorija
  15. Marija
  16. Katrina*
  17. Gabriela
  18. Keita – the Latvian form of Kate
  19. Melanija*
  20. Eva
  21. Alisa
  22. Evelina*
  23. Odrija – the Latvian form of Audrey
  24. Milana
  25. Nora
  26. Madara – the Latvian word for bedstraw (i.e., plants in the genus Galium)
  27. Patricija*
  28. Nikola
  29. Hanna
  30. Luize*
  31. Eliza*
  32. Maija
  33. Olivija*
  34. Laura
  35. Anastasija
  36. Amanda
  37. Kate
  38. Melisa
  39. Enija – the Latvian form of Annie
  40. Aleksandra
  41. Veronika
  42. Adelina*
  43. Sara*
  44. Karlina*
  45. Rebeka
  46. Šarlote – the Latvian form of Charlotte
  47. Arina
  48. Kira
  49. Adele
  50. Ieva – the Latvian word for bird cherry (Prunus padus)

Boy names

  1. Olivers
  2. Roberts
  3. Marks
  4. Gustavs
  5. Emils*
    • The usage of Emils rose steeply during the 1990s (and likely earlier) thanks to the 1985 TV movie Emila nedarbi, which was so popular (and aired so frequently) in Latvia “that many of the lines of the leading character Emils and his parents have become part of the national lexicon.” The program was based on the children’s novel Emil i Lönneberga by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren.
  6. Markuss
  7. Daniels
  8. Karlis*
  9. Adrians
  10. Jekabs*
  11. Aleksandrs
  12. Ernests
  13. Ralfs
  14. Dominiks
  15. Alekss
  16. Tomass
    • The rise of Tomass during the 2000s may be attributable to skeleton racer Tomass Dukurs, who began racing professionally in 1998.
  17. Arturs*
  18. Ricards (the “c” should have a caron)
  19. Toms
  20. Maksims
  21. Teodors
  22. Janis*
    • The pre-Christian name Janis, which was adopted as the Latvian equivalent of Johannes/John, “has been at or near the top of the list for popular names given to baby boys in Latvia for centuries.”
  23. Artjoms – the Latvian form of the Russian name Artyom
  24. Reinis
  25. Kristers – the Latvian form of the Swedish name Christer
  26. Lukass*
  27. Martins
    • The rise of Martins during the 2000s may be attributable to skeleton racer Martins Dukurs, who, like his older brother Tomass, began racing professionally in 1998. Martins was a silver medalist at both the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
  28. Gabriels
  29. Timurs – the Latvian form of the Russian name Timur
  30. Valters – the Latvian form of Walter
  31. Kristofers
  32. Everts
  33. Hugo
  34. Davids*
  35. Mihails
  36. Matvejs – the Latvian form of the Russian name Matvey
  37. Renars* – the Latvian form of the German name Reinhard
  38. Edvards
  39. Rudolfs*
  40. Oskars
  41. Henrijs
  42. Leo
  43. Rihards
  44. Rodrigo
  45. Pauls
  46. Kristaps – the Latvian form of Christopher
  47. Alberts
  48. Matiss* – the Latvian form of Matthew
  49. Patriks
  50. Daniils

The girl’s top 100 included Lauma (69th), the name of a woodland spirit in Latvian mythology.

The boys’ top 100 included Viesturs (94th), which is based on the Latvian word viesturis, meaning “hospitable.”

And two of the names that dropped out of the top 100 recently are Kristine* and Lasma*:

  • Kristine, the #1 girl name in Latvia throughout the 1980s, was originally popularized by the 1966 Soviet-Latvian film Purva bridejs, which featured a character named Kristine.
  • Lasma, a top-50 girl name from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, was influenced by the 1981 Soviet-Latvian film Limuzins Janu nakts krasa, which featured a character named Lasma.

During the previous five-year period, from 2013 to 2017, the top names in Latvia were Sofija and Roberts.

*Letters with macrons don’t render properly on my site, so please imagine they exist in the names marked with an asterisk.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Latvia (public domain)

Popular baby names in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1866

19th-century Providence, Rhode Island
19th-century Providence

Last month we looked at the top Providence names of 1867, so today let’s check out the rankings from the year before — 1866.

First, some stats:

  • 1,633 babies were babies were born in Providence in 1866, by my count. (The number given by the author of the document is 1,632.)
  • 1,457 of these babies (707 girls and 750 boys) had names that were registered with the government at the time of publication. The other 176 babies got blank spaces.
  • 234 unique names (123 girl names and 108 boy names) were shared among these 1,457 babies.

And here’s some extra information I forgot to mention in the last post: In 1860, the city of Providence was home to 29.0% of Rhode Island’s population. In 1870, it was home to 31.7% of the population. So each of these 3 sets of rankings (1866, 1867, 1868) ought to account for roughly 30% of the residents of the state.

Now, on to the names…

Top 5

The top 5 girl names and boy names of 1866 were, unsurprisingly, very similar to the top names of 1867.

Top baby girl namesTop baby boy names
1. Mary
2. Catherine
3. Ellen
4. Margaret
5. Sarah		1. John
2. William
3. James
4. George
5. Thomas

The girls’ top 5 is identical, while the boys’ top 5 includes Thomas instead of George.

All Girl Names

As expected, Mary was the front-runner by a huge margin. And, while there were dozens of Catherines, and a single Catharine, there weren’t any Katherines.

  1. Mary, 149 baby girls
  2. Catherine, 43
  3. Ellen, 40
  4. Margaret, 37
  5. Sarah, 36
  6. Elizabeth, 32
  7. Alice, 18
  8. Annie, 15
  9. Anna & Eliza, 14 each (2-way tie)
  10. Clara, 13
  11. Ann, 11
  12. Carrie, Emma, Jane & Susan, 10 each (4-way tie)
  13. Grace & Ida, 9 each (2-way tie)
  14. Esther, Martha & Minnie, 7 each (3-way tie)
  15. Anne & Julia, 6 each (2-way tie)
  16. Agnes, Charlotte, Cora, Harriet, Jennie, Joanna, Maria & Rosanna, 5 each (8-way tie)
  17. Amelia, Bridget, Ella, Frances, Hattie, Lydia, Nellie & Theresa, 4 each (8-way tie)
  18. Abby, Emily, Florence, Josephine, Laura, Lillian, Lizzie, Louise & Marion, 3 each (9-way tie)
  19. Ada, Amy, Augusta, Deborah, Edith, Etta, Eva, Fannie, Georgianna, Hannah, Henrietta, Honora, Isabel, Isabella, Lottie, Lucy, Mabel, Marietta, Maud & Teresa, 2 each (20-way tie)
  20. Almira, Annette, Bertha, Catharine, Cedelia, Celia, Christina, Delia, Diana, Dora, Dorcas, Eldora, Eleanor, Elsie, Emeline, Etherine, Eugenie, Evangeline, Fanny, Flora, Geneva, Georgia, Gracie, Helen, Helena, Imogene, Janette, Jessie, Kate, Lena, Louisa, Lucia, Lucinda, Madelina, Marian, Marsalin, May, Millie, Mina, Mini, Minna, Neatah, Nettie, Phebe, Rebecca, Rosa, Roselia, Rosetta, Ruth, Sophia, Stella, Susanna, Susannah, Tillie & Winnifred, 1 each (55-way tie)

All Boy Names

John had an even more commanding lead in 1866 than in 1867.

  1. John, 109 baby boys
  2. William, 78
  3. James, 62
  4. George, 44
  5. Thomas, 41
  6. Charles, 36
  7. Edward, 28
  8. Joseph, 27
  9. Frederick, 20
  10. Henry, 18
  11. Frank, 17
  12. Michael, 15
  13. Francis, 14
  14. Daniel, 13
  15. Albert, Patrick & Robert, 12 each (3-way tie)
  16. Walter, 11
  17. Arthur, Peter & Samuel, 8 each (3-way tie)
  18. Alfred, Harry, Louis & Stephen, 7 each (4-way tie)
  19. Martin, 6
  20. Matthew, 5
  21. Christopher, Clarence, Herbert, Howard & Hugh, 4 each (5-way tie)
  22. Benjamin, Eugene, Ira & Jeremiah, 3 each (4-way tie)
  23. Aaron, Alvin, Arnold, Earl, Edgar, Elisha, Freddie, Harrison, Lewis, Marcus, Nicholas, Philip, Richard & Timothy, 2 each (14-way tie)
  24. Abner, Adam, Adolph, Alanson, Alden, Ambrose, Antonio, August, Augustavus,* Augustus, Bartholomew, Bernard, Bradford, Byron, Chauncey, Clinton, David, Duncan, Eben, Ebenezer, Edwin, Elias, Elliott, Ethan, Everett, Ezra, Ferdinand, Frederic, Fullerton, Gilbert, Gwynn, Harold, Herman, Isaac, Jesse, Josiah, Lauriston, Luther, Manuel, Marks, Maurice, Miles, Mortimer, Oliver, Olney, Oscar, Otto, Rana, Rectol, Salisbury, Shamball, Simon, Terence, Theodore, Victor, Willard, Willie & Wilton, 1 each (58-way tie)

(I didn’t combine any variant spellings, but I did lump the abbreviated names Chas., Benj., and Fred’k in with Charles, Benjamin and Frederick.)

*Does Augustavus = Augustus + Gustav?

Twins

I counted 19 pairs of twins born in Providence in 1866. I didn’t notice any triplets this year. (All of these names have already been accounted for above.)

Girl-girl twinsGirl-boy twinsBoy-boy twins
Agnes & Anna
Eldora & Ellen
Eliza & Mary
Elizabeth & Julia
Frances & Mary
Josephine & Mary
Mary & Sarah
Theresa & (blank)		Alice & Frederick
Alice & John
Annie & Stephen
Catherine & (blank)
Sarah & Samuel		Edgar & Oscar
Edward & James
Francis & James
James & John
John & Thomas
(blank) & (blank)

I’ll try to finish/post the final set of rankings before the end of the year.

Source: Snow, Edwin M. Alphabetical Lists of Persons Deceased, Born and Married in the City of Providence During the Year 1866. Providence: Hammond, Angell & Co., 1867.

Revolutionary baby names in Russia: Ninel, Melor, Traktorina

Revolutionaries firing at Tsarist police during the February Revolution (part of the 1917 Russian Revolution).
Russian revolutionaries (Feb. 1917)

In 1917, Russia experienced two revolutions. The February Revolution (which happened in March) resulted in the monarchy being overthrown and replaced by a provisional government; the October Revolution (which happened in November) resulted in the provisional government being overthrown by the Bolsheviks.

The two revolutions were followed by a bloody civil war, and finally by the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) in late 1922.

Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin addressing the public in 1917.
Lenin addressing the public (1917)

This period of social and political upheaval in Russia had an influence on Russian baby names (the same way the French revolution had an influence on French baby names a century earlier.) Most of Russia’s revolution- and socialism-inspired baby names were bestowed in the 1920s and 1930s, but several emerged decades later (during the Space Race, for instance).

Some examples…

NameSignificance/Translation
Ateist“Atheist”
Arvil“Army of V. I. Lenin”
Avangarda“Avant-garde”
Barrikada“Barricade”
BastilThe Bastille, Paris fortress stormed during the French Revolution
BebelAugust Bebel, German Marxist
Buntar“Rebel”
DantonGeorges Jacques Danton, French revolutionary
Dazdraperma“Long live the first of May” (da zdrastvuet pervoye Maya)
Dinamit“Dynamite”
Dinamo“Dynamo,” originally a type of electrical generator
Disizara“Child, follow the Revolution boldly” (ditya, smelo idi za revolyutsiyey)
DonbassDonets Basin, coal-mining area in the Ukraine
Elekrifikatsiya“Electrification”
Elektrostanciya“Power station”
EngelinaFriedrich Engels, co-creator of Marxism
FevralinaBased on February, signifying the February Revolution of 1917
Geniy“Genius”
Gertruda“Heroine of labor” (geroinya truda)
Giotin“Guillotine”
Ideya“Idea”
Ilich; IlinaBased on Lenin’s patronym, Ilyich
Industriya“Industry”
Industrializatsia“Industrialization”
Iskra“Spark”
KazbekMount Kazbek
Kim“Communist Youth International” (Kommunisticheskii Internatsional Molodezhi)
Kommuna“Commune”
Krasnyi“Red”
Kukutsapol“Corn, queen of the fields” (kukuruza, tsaritsa poley)
Lagshmivara“Schmidt‘s Arctic camp” (lager’ Shmidta v Arktike)
Lentrosh“Lenin, Trotsky, Shahumyan“
Lentrozin“Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev“
Leundezh“Lenin died, but his work lives on” (Lenin umer, no delo ego zhivet)
LibknekhtKarl Liebknecht, German socialist executed in 1919
Lorikerik“Lenin, October Revolution, industrialization, collectivization, electrification, radio installation, communism”
Lyuksemburg;
Roza		Rosa Luxemburg, German socialist executed in 1919
MarksKarl Marx, co-creator and namesake of Marxism
Marlen“Marx, Lenin”
MarselezaLa Marseillaise, national anthem of France
MayaBased on May, signifying May 1 (May Day)
Mels“Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin”
Melor“Marx, Engels, Lenin, October Revolution”
Molot“Hammer” — as in “hammer and sickle”
Myuda“International Youth Day”
NinelLenin spelled backwards
Oktyabrin;
Oktyabrina		Based on October, signifying the October Revolution of 1917
Oyushminald;
Oyushminalda		“Otto Yulyevich Schmidt on the ice” (Otto Yulyevich Shmidt na l’du)
Parizhkommuna“Paris Commune”
Perkosrak“First space rocket”
Persostrat“First Soviet stratospheric balloon” (perviy sovetsky stratostat)
Pofistal“Conqueror of fascism Joseph Stalin” (pobeditel fashizm Iosif Stalin)
Proletariy“Proletarian”
Pravda“Truth” — the name of the Communist Party newspaper
Pyatvchet“Five-year plan to be fulfilled in four years”
RadiyRadium, the element
RazinStenka Razin, 17th-century Cossack rebel
Revdit“Revolutionary child” (ditya)
Revmir;
Revmira		“Revolutionary peace”
Revolyutsiya;
Revoly;
Lyutsiya		“Revolution”
Revvola“Revolutionary wave” (volna)
RobesperMaximilien Robespierre, French revolutionary
Roblen“Born to be a Leninist” (rodilsia byt’ Lenintsem)
Serpina“Sickle” (serp) — as in “hammer and sickle”
Smena“Shift” or “Change (of workers in a factory)”
Smychka“Union, alliance” — a Soviet political term
SpartakSpartakusbund, Germany’s Spartacus League
StalinaJoseph Stalin
Svoboda“Freedom”
Tekstil“Textile”
Traktor;
Traktorina		“Tractor”
Trolebuzin“Trotsky, Lenin, Bukharin, Zinoviev”
Uryurvkos“Hooray, Yura’s in space” (ura, Yura v kosmose) — a reference to Yuri Gagarin
VanadiyVanadium, the element
Vilora“Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, organizer of the revolution” (organizator revolyutsii)
Vilen; VilenaV. I. Lenin
Vladlen;
Vladilen;
Vladlena		Vladimir Lenin
Volya“Will”
YuralgaYuri Alekseyevich Gagarin
Zheldora“Railway”
Zikatra“Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky”

Other baby names of the era weren’t so much political as they were fanciful, e.g., Atlantida (“Atlantis”), Monblan (Mont Blanc), Traviata (the Verdi opera La traviata), and Zvezde (“star”).

It’s also interesting to note that a portion of these parents went in the other direction entirely. Instead of opting for progressive names, they went for “pre-Christian Slavic names such as Mstislav or Sviatopolk that had fallen into disuse in modern times.”

Sources:

[Latest update: 4/2023]