Marcelus
Marcelus was last recorded in 2024, when 5 babies were given it; 307 Americans have been recorded with it between 1970 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Marcelus by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Marcelus?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #13,502, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
18 babies in 1996, the peak
Marcelus peaked in 1996, when 18 boys were given it, #3,769 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 5 | #13,502 | 2.9 |
| 2023 | 11 | #7,565 | 6.4 |
| 2021 | 9 | #8,589 | 5.1 |
| 2020 | 7 | #10,199 | 4.1 |
| 2019 | 5 | #13,401 | 2.8 |
| 2018 | 9 | #8,582 | 5.0 |
| 2017 | 5 | #13,537 | 2.7 |
| 2014 | 5 | #13,320 | 2.6 |
| 2013 | 7 | #10,333 | 3.7 |
| 2012 | 6 | #11,728 | 3.2 |
Every recorded year (36)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 9 | #8,522 | 4.7 |
| 2010 | 7 | #10,352 | 3.6 |
| 2008 | 6 | #12,021 | 2.9 |
| 2006 | 10 | #7,794 | 4.9 |
| 2005 | 14 | #5,762 | 7.0 |
| 2004 | 9 | #7,946 | 4.5 |
| 2003 | 6 | #10,390 | 3.0 |
| 2002 | 10 | #6,854 | 5.2 |
| 2001 | 9 | #7,288 | 4.6 |
| 1998 | 12 | #5,345 | 6.3 |
| 1997 | 9 | #6,421 | 4.8 |
| 1996 | 18 | #3,769 | 9.5 |
| 1995 | 9 | #6,220 | 4.7 |
| 1994 | 9 | #6,159 | 4.7 |
| 1993 | 11 | #5,235 | 5.6 |
| 1992 | 6 | #8,068 | 3.0 |
| 1991 | 16 | #3,751 | 7.9 |
| 1990 | 11 | #4,876 | 5.4 |
| 1989 | 13 | #4,184 | 6.5 |
| 1988 | 7 | #6,200 | 3.7 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,706 | 3.8 |
| 1985 | 5 | #7,178 | 2.7 |
| 1984 | 6 | #6,052 | 3.3 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,413 | 3.0 |
| 1971 | 8 | #3,833 | 4.5 |
| 1970 | 6 | #4,546 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Marcelus a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Marcelus has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 36 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Marcelus: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Marcelus, and how old are they?
An estimated 297 Americans named Marcelus and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 28 years old and half are between 15 and 35. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 272 people named Marcelus (2 women and girls, 270 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 270 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% above that prediction.
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).
How common is the spelling Marcelus?
Marcelus is a less common spelling of Marcellus: SSA has recorded 307 Marcelus and 9,608 Marcellus since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 11,632 babies since 1880, Marcelus is the fourth most given (2.6% of them). In 2025 none of their 221 babies recorded by SSA was a Marcelus (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
| Name | Since 1880 | Births 2025 | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marcellus | 9,608 | 208 | 2021 |
| Marcellous | 1,062 | 13 | 1993 |
| Marcellis | 310 | under 5 | 1994 |
| Marcelus | 307 | under 5 | 1996 |
| Marcelis | 113 | under 5 | 1992 |
| Marcelles | 92 | under 5 | 1988 |
| Marcellas | 79 | under 5 | 1976 |
| Marcellius | 61 | under 5 | 1996 |
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 Marcelus
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 Marcelus and names like it
- Compare Marcelus and MarcellusBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sMarcelus peaked in 1996.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Marcelus since 1910.
- The top names of 1996The year the most babies were named Marcelus.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Marcelus alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with MMost given first.