Boy · Latin
Marcus
Say it: MAR-kus
Meaning
Probably derived from Mars, the Roman god of war.
Likelythe main view, with some doubt.
One of the most common Roman praenomina; through Mark the Evangelist it passed into every Christian language of Europe.
Its wave through time
Most used in the 1980s
In the United States
- 235,661 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1984, about 1 in 301 boys
- 1,632 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- Ancient Rome750 BC to AD 476
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
LatinEarly ChristianEnglishAmericanItalianSpanishFrenchGermanPolishCaribbean
The family of the name
| English | Mark |
|---|---|
| Italian | Marco |
| Spanish | Marcos |
| French | Marc |
| German | Markus |
| Polish | Marek |
| Portuguese | Marcos |
| Catalan | Marc |
Famous bearers
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator
- Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and philosopher
- Mark the Evangelist (Latin Marcus)
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Roman literature and history (Livy, Cicero, Tacitus and others)
- Roman inscriptions and tombstones
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.