Marcela
Marcela was given to 136 girls in 2025, #1,554 among girls’ names; 8,955 Americans have been recorded with it since 1908 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,320 Americans named Marcela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 29 years old and half are between 17 and 42.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Marcela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Marcela mean?
Wiktionary, Tagalog section
Marcela is “a female given name from Spanish, equivalent to English Marcella”
Borrowed from Spanish Marcela.
/maɾˈsela/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Tagalog section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Marcela?
#1,554 among girls’ names, 2025
Marcela rose from #1,958 in 2015 to #1,554 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 57.7 to 84.6 per million.
210 babies in 1999, the peak
Marcela peaked in 1999, when 210 girls were given it, #982 among girls’ names. The 136 births of 2025 are 65% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 136 | #1,554 | 0.08 |
| 2024 | 148 | #1,478 | 0.09 |
| 2023 | 145 | #1,497 | 0.09 |
| 2022 | 115 | #1,788 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 129 | #1,626 | 0.08 |
| 2020 | 105 | #1,854 | 0.06 |
| 2019 | 141 | #1,536 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 132 | #1,621 | 0.08 |
| 2017 | 108 | #1,884 | 0.06 |
| 2016 | 127 | #1,687 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (111)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 103 | #1,958 | 0.06 |
| 2014 | 112 | #1,826 | 0.06 |
| 2013 | 114 | #1,804 | 0.06 |
| 2012 | 119 | #1,738 | 0.07 |
| 2011 | 110 | #1,836 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 122 | #1,718 | 0.07 |
| 2009 | 137 | #1,638 | 0.07 |
| 2008 | 175 | #1,377 | 0.09 |
| 2007 | 163 | #1,449 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 174 | #1,340 | 0.09 |
| 2005 | 180 | #1,257 | 0.10 |
| 2004 | 206 | #1,112 | 0.11 |
| 2003 | 201 | #1,098 | 0.11 |
| 2002 | 178 | #1,158 | 0.10 |
| 2001 | 199 | #1,069 | 0.11 |
| 2000 | 164 | #1,214 | 0.09 |
| 1999 | 210 | #982 | 0.12 |
| 1998 | 179 | #1,082 | 0.10 |
| 1997 | 146 | #1,228 | 0.08 |
| 1996 | 183 | #1,025 | 0.10 |
| 1995 | 178 | #1,024 | 0.10 |
| 1994 | 181 | #1,022 | 0.10 |
| 1993 | 159 | #1,125 | 0.09 |
| 1992 | 194 | #984 | 0.11 |
| 1991 | 201 | #945 | 0.11 |
| 1990 | 171 | #1,046 | 0.09 |
| 1989 | 163 | #1,046 | 0.09 |
| 1988 | 156 | #1,033 | 0.09 |
| 1987 | 145 | #1,061 | 0.08 |
| 1986 | 143 | #1,056 | 0.08 |
| 1985 | 142 | #1,047 | 0.08 |
| 1984 | 127 | #1,094 | 0.08 |
| 1983 | 104 | #1,226 | 0.06 |
| 1982 | 142 | #1,031 | 0.08 |
| 1981 | 140 | #1,030 | 0.08 |
| 1980 | 131 | #1,080 | 0.08 |
| 1979 | 123 | #1,106 | 0.08 |
| 1978 | 125 | #1,065 | 0.08 |
| 1977 | 118 | #1,100 | 0.08 |
| 1976 | 100 | #1,157 | 0.07 |
| 1975 | 100 | #1,158 | 0.07 |
| 1974 | 101 | #1,147 | 0.07 |
| 1973 | 89 | #1,208 | 0.06 |
| 1972 | 73 | #1,373 | 0.05 |
| 1971 | 62 | #1,570 | 0.04 |
| 1970 | 84 | #1,290 | 0.05 |
| 1969 | 52 | #1,677 | 0.03 |
| 1968 | 64 | #1,412 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 49 | #1,631 | 0.03 |
| 1966 | 52 | #1,563 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 21 | #2,718 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 27 | #2,389 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 38 | #1,908 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 44 | #1,721 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 27 | #2,337 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 34 | #1,965 | 0.02 |
| 1959 | 17 | #2,941 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 27 | #2,193 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 17 | #2,886 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 19 | #2,683 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 11 | #3,705 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 13 | #3,258 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 21 | #2,340 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 14 | #3,001 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 10 | #3,633 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 7 | #4,573 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 12 | #3,100 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 10 | #3,501 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 18 | #2,413 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 14 | #2,692 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 7 | #3,880 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 7 | #3,927 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 12 | #2,794 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 9 | #3,333 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 16 | #2,149 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 15 | #2,168 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 8 | #3,312 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 9 | #3,096 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 6 | #4,092 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 12 | #2,466 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 13 | #2,387 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 17 | #1,967 | 0.02 |
| 1933 | 19 | #1,815 | 0.02 |
| 1932 | 13 | #2,440 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 15 | #2,167 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 17 | #2,080 | 0.02 |
| 1929 | 23 | #1,683 | 0.02 |
| 1928 | 16 | #2,252 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 18 | #2,142 | 0.02 |
| 1926 | 14 | #2,535 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 22 | #1,875 | 0.02 |
| 1924 | 28 | #1,633 | 0.02 |
| 1923 | 14 | #2,547 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 23 | #1,819 | 0.02 |
| 1921 | 9 | #3,572 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 15 | #2,426 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 8 | #3,672 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 14 | #2,459 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 9 | #3,259 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,657 | 0.01 |
| 1908 | 9 | #1,505 | 0.03 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Marcela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Marcela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 111 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Marcela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Marcela, and how old are they?
8,320 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 93% of the 8,955 Americans ever recorded as Marcela. The median Marcela alive today is 29 years old; half are between 17 and 42.
The 2020 Census counted 22,861 people named Marcela (22,769 women and girls, 92 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,700 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.0 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 60 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 304 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,260 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,460 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,630 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,610 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Marcela born?
The states with the most babies named Marcela are Texas, California and Florida, with 81% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 31 | #936 | 3.0× |
| California | 19 | #1,300 | 2.4× |
| Florida | 13 | #1,157 | 1.4× |
| New Jersey | 5 | #1,289 | 0.3× |
| Georgia | 5 | #1,705 | 0.2× |
| Alabama | 5 | #902 | 0.0× |
Where Marcela is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Marcela is most over-represented in Texas: since 1910 it was given 3.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Marcela with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 96,560 babies since 1880, Marcela is the third most given (9.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 136 of their 521 babies (26%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Marcela
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Marcela and names like it
- Compare Marcela and MarcellaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sMarcela peaked in 1999.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Marcela since 1910.
- Spanish namesWiktionary’s origin for Marcela: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1999The year the most babies were named Marcela.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Marcela alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.