Maricela
Maricela was given to 64 girls in 2025, #2,712 among girls’ names; 13,133 Americans have been recorded with it since 1944 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 12,500 Americans named Maricela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 40 years old and half are between 29 and 50.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Maricela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Maricela mean?
Wiktionary, Spanish section
Maricela is “a female given name”
Blend of María + Celia.
/maɾiˈθela/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Spanish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Maricela?
#2,712 among girls’ names, 2025
Maricela rose from #3,017 in 2015 to #2,712 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 31.9 to 39.8 per million.
437 babies in 1977, the peak
Maricela peaked in 1977, when 437 girls were given it, #453 among girls’ names. The 64 births of 2025 are 15% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 64 | #2,712 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 53 | #3,070 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 61 | #2,808 | 0.04 |
| 2022 | 48 | #3,348 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 47 | #3,372 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 48 | #3,258 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 48 | #3,315 | 0.03 |
| 2018 | 66 | #2,637 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 60 | #2,827 | 0.03 |
| 2016 | 75 | #2,456 | 0.04 |
Every recorded year (82)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 57 | #3,017 | 0.03 |
| 2014 | 75 | #2,439 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 77 | #2,375 | 0.04 |
| 2012 | 94 | #2,057 | 0.05 |
| 2011 | 90 | #2,136 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 95 | #2,085 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 132 | #1,691 | 0.07 |
| 2008 | 125 | #1,768 | 0.07 |
| 2007 | 157 | #1,484 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 173 | #1,348 | 0.09 |
| 2005 | 142 | #1,486 | 0.08 |
| 2004 | 160 | #1,335 | 0.09 |
| 2003 | 146 | #1,379 | 0.08 |
| 2002 | 160 | #1,245 | 0.09 |
| 2001 | 170 | #1,203 | 0.09 |
| 2000 | 178 | #1,142 | 0.10 |
| 1999 | 222 | #942 | 0.13 |
| 1998 | 228 | #918 | 0.13 |
| 1997 | 210 | #947 | 0.12 |
| 1996 | 249 | #818 | 0.14 |
| 1995 | 218 | #873 | 0.12 |
| 1994 | 262 | #780 | 0.15 |
| 1993 | 246 | #814 | 0.14 |
| 1992 | 318 | #682 | 0.17 |
| 1991 | 328 | #663 | 0.17 |
| 1990 | 399 | #580 | 0.21 |
| 1989 | 331 | #633 | 0.18 |
| 1988 | 325 | #615 | 0.18 |
| 1987 | 313 | #618 | 0.18 |
| 1986 | 332 | #582 | 0.19 |
| 1985 | 323 | #595 | 0.19 |
| 1984 | 220 | #742 | 0.13 |
| 1983 | 207 | #772 | 0.12 |
| 1982 | 251 | #699 | 0.15 |
| 1981 | 278 | #639 | 0.17 |
| 1980 | 328 | #566 | 0.20 |
| 1979 | 360 | #529 | 0.22 |
| 1978 | 425 | #462 | 0.28 |
| 1977 | 437 | #453 | 0.29 |
| 1976 | 405 | #469 | 0.28 |
| 1975 | 291 | #569 | 0.20 |
| 1974 | 291 | #561 | 0.20 |
| 1973 | 265 | #596 | 0.18 |
| 1972 | 232 | #657 | 0.15 |
| 1971 | 211 | #720 | 0.13 |
| 1970 | 166 | #830 | 0.09 |
| 1969 | 183 | #750 | 0.11 |
| 1968 | 139 | #872 | 0.08 |
| 1967 | 159 | #791 | 0.10 |
| 1966 | 122 | #915 | 0.07 |
| 1965 | 137 | #856 | 0.08 |
| 1964 | 118 | #980 | 0.06 |
| 1963 | 126 | #941 | 0.07 |
| 1962 | 94 | #1,123 | 0.05 |
| 1961 | 84 | #1,208 | 0.04 |
| 1960 | 90 | #1,150 | 0.04 |
| 1959 | 55 | #1,457 | 0.03 |
| 1958 | 58 | #1,404 | 0.03 |
| 1957 | 49 | #1,542 | 0.02 |
| 1956 | 51 | #1,499 | 0.03 |
| 1955 | 53 | #1,376 | 0.03 |
| 1954 | 44 | #1,529 | 0.02 |
| 1953 | 48 | #1,418 | 0.03 |
| 1952 | 32 | #1,765 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 34 | #1,651 | 0.02 |
| 1950 | 28 | #1,821 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 35 | #1,583 | 0.02 |
| 1948 | 15 | #2,661 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 16 | #2,597 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 13 | #2,831 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 12 | #2,688 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 10 | #3,072 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Maricela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Maricela has been given almost only to girls: 56 boys in 82 years of records.
Girls and boys named Maricela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Maricela, and how old are they?
12,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 13,133 Americans ever recorded as Maricela. The median Maricela alive today is 40 years old; half are between 29 and 50.
The 2020 Census counted 31,152 people named Maricela (31,081 women and girls, 71 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 12,368 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.5 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 | 13 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 849 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 3,900 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,510 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,450 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 774 |
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 Maricela born?
The states with the most babies named Maricela are California, Texas and Illinois, with 90% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 5,382 | #1,711 | 3.4× |
| Texas | 3,917 | #1,296 | 3.7× |
| Illinois | 771 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Arizona | 489 | not ranked | 2.3× |
| Florida | 177 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Washington | 98 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| New York | 73 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Oregon | 51 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Georgia | 46 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| North Carolina | 43 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Maricela is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Maricela is most over-represented in Texas: since 1944 it was given 3.7 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 Maricela 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 100,362 babies since 1880, Maricela is the second most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 64 of their 518 babies (12%), the third 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 Maricela
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 Maricela and names like it
- Compare Maricela and MarcellaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sMaricela peaked in 1977.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Maricela since 1910.
- Spanish namesWiktionary’s origin for Maricela: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1977The year the most babies were named Maricela.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Maricela alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with MMost given first.