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Maren

#472 in 2025Girls' name

Possibly to be bitter, through Maria

Maren has been given to 13,064 babies in the U.S. since 1916. In 2025 it ranked #472 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 707 recorded.

Babies named Maren, 2025

1 in 5,070

Maren over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Maren: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly to be bitter, through Maria

Danish

What Maren means

Maren belongs to the name family reached through Maren → Maren → Maria → Maria → מרים. Its meaning is “to be bitter”.

Origin, language, and formation

Maren is used in English, Danish, German, Norwegian and Swedish. Its origins include Danish.

Maren comes through Danish Maren and Latin Marina.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Marina, Maria, Maren and מרים.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 13,059 girls were recorded with the name Maren between 1916 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 707 in 2021; its best national rank was #438 in 2020.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #438 in 2020 to #472 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #1,117 in 2015 to #472 in 2025.

In the United States, 5 boys were recorded with the name Maren between 2022 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 5 in 2022; its best national rank was #13,618 in 2022.

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 Maren?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 5,070
654 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 2,460
0.04% of girls
Rank, 2025
#472
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
3,515 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Maren sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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 5009%

Put another way: gather 3,515 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Maren. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Marens were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Maren was born before 2012 — so the typical Maren is around 13 today.

Median birth year
2012
About 13 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
29.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
69.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
12,641
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 29.0% of all recorded uses (3,781).

Is Maren 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
+97
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−34
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+645
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.84×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
92.5%
Peak was 2021 (707)
Years since peak
4
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
13.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#438
2020

Spellings of Maren

Maren is not the most common spelling — Mary is, with 48.7% against Maren's 0.15%.

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 Maren is used

Across 2016–2025, Maren was most concentrated in Iowa — about 1 in 676 girls, against 1 in 2,491 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in 9,091).

11148 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Iowa1 in 676
  2. 2Nebraska1 in 746
  3. 3Maine1 in 877
  4. 4South Dakota1 in 877
  5. 5Kansas1 in 893
  6. 6Minnesota1 in 962
  7. 7Indiana1 in 1,235
  8. 8Ohio1 in 1,266

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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, Maren is somewhat regional — more concentrated than 58% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Maren around the world

Where Maren 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
    2002–2025
    #5,927
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2020–2025
    #780
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #198
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1992–2024
    #633
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1961–2010
    #801
    in 2010

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Maren

People whose public names include Maren, 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.

Maren in other languages

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

MareenMarene

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

Maren by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#472
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 34
Best rank ever
#438
2020
Peak year
2021
707 that year
First recorded
1916
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
13,059
Count in 2025
654

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#13,618
2022
Peak year
2022
5 that year
First recorded
2022
Last recorded
2022
All-time count
5
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Maren

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

MarciMartaMarcyMarloMargoMarinMaryamMarcieMariMarleeMarlaMariamMartiMartyLorenMarielMarniMaryjoMaraMarlynMargotMarvaMarynMarylou

Names with a curve like Maren

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

XiomaraAstridIvoryVioletaMaryamMiraEmmyJulietaReinaWinterRivkaRory

Sibling names for Maren

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 Maren

Top names of 2021, Maren's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2020Girls' names starting with MNorwegian Girl NamesOcean & Sea NamesShort Danish Girl Names