Name Awesome

Marcelo

#399 in 2025Boys' name

Form of Marcellus

Marcelo has been given to 13,231 babies in the U.S. since 1907. In 2025 it ranked #399 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 798 recorded.

Babies named Marcelo, 2025

1 in 4,150

Marcelo over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020040060080018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Marcelo: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Marcellus

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Marcelo means

Marcelo is a form of Marcellus.

Origin, language, and formation

Marcelo is used in Portuguese and Spanish.

Marcelo comes through Latin Marcellus.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Marcellus and Marcel.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Portuguese, Marcelo is pronounced /maʁˈsɛ.lu/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 13,231 boys were recorded with the name Marcelo between 1907 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 798 in 2025; its best national rank was #399 in 2025.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #642 in 2020 to #399 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #763 in 2015 to #399 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Marcelo?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 4,150
798 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 2,140
0.05% of boys
Rank, 2025
#399
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
2,881 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Marcelo sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 1002%
School of 50011%

Put another way: gather 2,881 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Marcelo. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Marcelos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Marcelo was born before 2011 — so the typical Marcelo is around 14 today.

Median birth year
2011
About 14 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
26.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
67.4%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
12,566
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 26.6% of all recorded uses (3,515).

Is Marcelo rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+45
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+243
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+364
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.55×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (798)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
11.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#399
2025

Spellings of Marcelo

Marcelo is not the most common spelling — Marco is, with 45.7% against Marcelo's 7.9%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Marcelo is used

Across 2016–2025, Marcelo was most concentrated in Texas — about 1 in 1,408 boys, against 1 in 3,032 across all states with data. It was least common in Kentucky (1 in 50,000).

271 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Texas1 in 1,408
  2. 2Arizona1 in 1,587
  3. 3Florida1 in 1,754
  4. 4Nevada1 in 1,754
  5. 5California1 in 1,852
  6. 6Illinois1 in 2,703
  7. 7Washington1 in 2,703
  8. 8New Jersey1 in 2,941

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Geographically, Marcelo is one of the more regionally concentrated names in the country — more concentrated than 87% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Marcelo around the world

Where Marcelo ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #2,952
    in 2025
  • France
    1966–2025
    #1,341
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #1,181
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1973–2011
    #784
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Marcelo

People whose public names include Marcelo, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Marcelo in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Marcelo. Linked forms have their own page here.

MeloMarcelMarcioMarcelloMarcelinoMarcelinho

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Marcelo by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#399
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 243
Best rank ever
#399
2025
Peak year
2025
798 that year
First recorded
1907
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
13,231
Count in 2025
798

Names similar to Marcelo

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MarianoMarquesMarquisMarquezMarkusMarshalMarquiseMarcellMarkellMarcelMarlinCarmeloMarcelloMarquelDangeloMarlonMartellMarleyMarkelMarcellusMarcialMartezMarquanMarcelino

Names with a curve like Marcelo

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Marcelo, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

SamsonValentinoLeandroLucianoSantinoSamirEzequielChaimMaximoYusufVincenzoYosef

Sibling names for Marcelo

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Marcelo

Top names of 2025, Marcelo's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2025Boys' names starting with MPortuguese Boy Names