Marvin
Marvin is a boy's name that peaked in 1928, when it was the 46th most popular in the United States. In 2025 it ranked 699th. About 119,000 Marvins are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 60.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Marvin boys named Marvin
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 255,807
- Estimated living today
- 119,000
- Median age today
- 60
- Peak year
- 1928
- Best rank
- 46th
- Rank in 2025
- 699th
- First recorded
- 1880
- Girls / boys
- 1,615 / 254,192
How old the living Marvins are
born that year still alive today
Of the 255,807 babies given the name since 1880, about 119,000 are alive — 47 in every hundred. Roughly 9,500 of them are children and 49,000 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1965 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Welsh
From probably from mer (“marrow”) + myn (“eminent”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Marvins
- Marvin Gaye (1939–1984)American R&B and soul singer
- Marvin Minsky (1927–2016)American cognitive scientist
- Marvin Plattenhardt (born 1992)German association football player
- Marvin Hamlisch (1944–2012)American composer and conductor
- Marvin Harris (1927–2001)American anthropologist
- Marvin Martin (born 1988)French footballer
- Marvelous Marvin Hagler (1954–2021)American boxer
- Marvin Compper (born 1985)German footballer
People named Marvin with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Marvin is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Marvin is most concentrated in South Dakota (2.8×), North Dakota (2.8×), Nebraska (2.3×), Iowa (2.1×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1928
The most popular boys’ names the year Marvin peaked:
Marvin elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| France boys | Marvin | 12,255 | 102nd |
| Switzerland boys | Marvin | 1,459 | 119th |
| Austria boys | Marvin | 755 | 56th |
| Belgium boys | Marvin | 736 | 147th |
| England and Wales boys | Marvin | 665 | 744th |
| Italy boys | Marvin | 356 | — |
| Norway boys | Marvin | 246 | 255th |
| Ireland boys | Marvin | 26 | 439th |
| Poland boys | Marvin | 25 birth registrations | 293rd |
| Scotland boys | Marvin | 10 | 271st |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Marvin: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German boys | Switzerland | Marvin | 1,320 | 0.106% | 87th |
| French boys | Switzerland | Marvin | 122 | 0.028% | 163rd |
| Italian boys | Switzerland | Marvin | 12 | 0.018% | 116th |
| Romansh boys | Switzerland | Marvin | 5 | 0.134% | 20th |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
By canton, Marvin is most concentrated in Thurgau, where 0.14% of children were given it – 82 of them.
Marvin: rank by region
In 2025, Marvin was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Marvin | 806 | 6 |
In 2013, Marvin was among the 10 most common names in 1 region of Italy.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste | Marvin | 10 | 1 |
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Italy after 10 names – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Marvin by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin boys | 2017–2023 | 54 | 253rd |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Marvin among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| the Netherlands boys | Marvin | 3,327 | 4,164 |
| Finland boys | Marvin | 42 | 62 |
| the Netherlands girls | Marvin | — | 20 |
A count of people on a register – the Netherlands on 1 January 2018, Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Marvin lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 373 men called Marvin were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Men: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balears, Illes | Marvin | 28 | 0.045 | 1,294 |
| Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Marvin | 20 | 0.038 | 2,040 |
| Palmas, Las | Marvin | 15 | 0.026 | 2,730 |
| Madrid | Marvin | 83 | 0.024 | 1,945 |
| Barcelona | Marvin | 63 | 0.022 | 2,211 |
| Málaga | Marvin | 18 | 0.021 | 2,175 |
Listed in 18 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 34 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Marvin against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.