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Marita

#6,731 in 2025Girls' name

Possibly to be bitter, through Maria

Marita has been given to 5,088 babies in the U.S. since 1901. In 2025 it ranked #6,731 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1954, with 125 recorded.

Babies named Marita, 2025

1 in 195,000

Marita over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Marita: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly to be bitter, through Maria

Ancient Greek

What Marita means

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

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Borrowed in the late 19th century from Norwegian Marita. By folk etymology, explained as a Spanish diminutive of Maria, by analogy with Anita.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Marita (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Marita is used in English, Faroese, Finnish, Latvian, Norwegian and Swedish. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Marita comes through Norwegian Marita.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Maria, Marit and מרים.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Faroese, Marita is pronounced /ˈmɛaːɹɪta/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,088 girls were recorded with the name Marita between 1901 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 125 in 1954; its best national rank was #769 in 1938.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #12,992 in 2020 to #6,731 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #9,304 in 2015 to #6,731 in 2025.

How common is Marita?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 195,000
17 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 94,500
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#6,731
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
135,172 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Marita 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 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 135,172 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Marita. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Maritas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Marita was born before 1955 — so the typical Marita is around 70 today.

Median birth year
1955
About 70 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
20.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.4%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
3,165
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 20.8% of all recorded uses (1,056).

Is Marita 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
+5,042
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+6,261
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+2,573
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.42×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
13.6%
Peak was 1954 (125)
Years since peak
71
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
58.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#769
1938

Spellings of Marita

Marita is not the most common spelling — Maria is, with 14.9% against Marita's 0.13%.

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 Marita is used

Across 1910–2025, Marita was most concentrated in Pennsylvania — about 1 in 25,000 girls, against 1 in 69,803 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Pennsylvania1 in 25,000
  2. 2Illinois1 in 33,333
  3. 3Indiana1 in 33,333
  4. 4Iowa1 in 50,000
  5. 5Kansas1 in 50,000
  6. 6Kentucky1 in 50,000
  7. 7Ohio1 in 50,000
  8. 8California1 in 100,000

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. Marita has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Marita around the world

Where Marita 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
    1999–2015
    #5,730
    in 2015
  • Ireland
    1966–1997
    #576
    in 1997
  • France
    1925–2024
    #5,345
    in 2024
  • Norway
    1880–2022
    #467
    in 2022
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #2,463
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1944–1992
    #704
    in 1992

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

Marita by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#6,731
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 6,261
Best rank ever
#769
1938
Peak year
1954
125 that year
First recorded
1901
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
5,088
Count in 2025
17

Names similar to Marita

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

MarnitaMarkitaMarquitaMarvelMarlenMarlieMarnieMarlynMaryjoMarielMargaritaMarelyMariyaMariluMarloweMaryahMarylinMartiMarinMarleenMartyMargauxMarlowMaryam

Names with a curve like Marita

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

HerlindaEvonJeanettaErlindaOraliaRositaCarleenAletaEvonneKarleneJoettaVenita

Sibling names for Marita

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 Marita

Top names of 1954, Marita's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1938Girls' names starting with MMary Variations & Nicknames