Marva
Marva was last recorded in 2023, when 5 babies were given it; 10,369 Americans have been recorded with it between 1913 and 2023 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,420 Americans named Marva and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (62% of everyone recorded); the median is 72 years old and half are between 63 and 80.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Marva by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Marva?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #16,747, in 2023; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
371 babies in 1948, the peak
Marva peaked in 1948, when 371 girls were given it, #411 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 5 | #16,747 | under 0.01 |
| 2020 | 5 | #16,667 | under 0.01 |
| 2018 | 5 | #17,280 | under 0.01 |
| 2014 | 5 | #18,269 | under 0.01 |
| 2012 | 5 | #18,599 | under 0.01 |
| 2005 | 5 | #18,202 | under 0.01 |
| 2002 | 9 | #10,778 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 5 | #16,647 | under 0.01 |
| 1999 | 6 | #13,787 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 6 | #13,126 | under 0.01 |
Every recorded year (94)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 10 | #8,590 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 9 | #9,241 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 9 | #9,315 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 16 | #5,840 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 13 | #6,903 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 19 | #5,108 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 22 | #4,458 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 28 | #3,627 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 23 | #3,972 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 26 | #3,482 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 16 | #4,876 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 23 | #3,686 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 33 | #2,761 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 33 | #2,705 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 34 | #2,740 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 30 | #2,957 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 35 | #2,682 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 33 | #2,706 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 24 | #3,247 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 37 | #2,408 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 31 | #2,583 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 46 | #1,949 | 0.03 |
| 1974 | 65 | #1,510 | 0.04 |
| 1973 | 59 | #1,583 | 0.04 |
| 1972 | 69 | #1,427 | 0.05 |
| 1971 | 94 | #1,207 | 0.06 |
| 1970 | 113 | #1,076 | 0.06 |
| 1969 | 115 | #1,016 | 0.07 |
| 1968 | 109 | #1,007 | 0.07 |
| 1967 | 105 | #999 | 0.06 |
| 1966 | 111 | #968 | 0.07 |
| 1965 | 125 | #903 | 0.07 |
| 1964 | 141 | #874 | 0.07 |
| 1963 | 144 | #876 | 0.07 |
| 1962 | 172 | #796 | 0.09 |
| 1961 | 150 | #874 | 0.07 |
| 1960 | 172 | #781 | 0.09 |
| 1959 | 212 | #689 | 0.10 |
| 1958 | 173 | #757 | 0.09 |
| 1957 | 214 | #672 | 0.10 |
| 1956 | 252 | #599 | 0.13 |
| 1955 | 261 | #564 | 0.13 |
| 1954 | 282 | #527 | 0.15 |
| 1953 | 296 | #505 | 0.16 |
| 1952 | 241 | #556 | 0.13 |
| 1951 | 330 | #457 | 0.18 |
| 1950 | 315 | #456 | 0.18 |
| 1949 | 318 | #446 | 0.19 |
| 1948 | 371 | #411 | 0.22 |
| 1947 | 328 | #450 | 0.19 |
| 1946 | 286 | #463 | 0.18 |
| 1945 | 263 | #441 | 0.20 |
| 1944 | 316 | #400 | 0.24 |
| 1943 | 322 | #407 | 0.23 |
| 1942 | 276 | #439 | 0.20 |
| 1941 | 338 | #366 | 0.28 |
| 1940 | 297 | #392 | 0.26 |
| 1939 | 319 | #367 | 0.29 |
| 1938 | 332 | #355 | 0.30 |
| 1937 | 342 | #342 | 0.32 |
| 1936 | 350 | #334 | 0.34 |
| 1935 | 187 | #466 | 0.18 |
| 1934 | 74 | #785 | 0.07 |
| 1933 | 60 | #873 | 0.06 |
| 1932 | 57 | #938 | 0.05 |
| 1931 | 57 | #922 | 0.05 |
| 1930 | 69 | #863 | 0.06 |
| 1929 | 56 | #965 | 0.05 |
| 1928 | 60 | #964 | 0.05 |
| 1927 | 43 | #1,184 | 0.04 |
| 1926 | 39 | #1,255 | 0.03 |
| 1925 | 44 | #1,172 | 0.04 |
| 1924 | 37 | #1,343 | 0.03 |
| 1923 | 35 | #1,342 | 0.03 |
| 1922 | 25 | #1,710 | 0.02 |
| 1921 | 31 | #1,504 | 0.03 |
| 1920 | 24 | #1,733 | 0.02 |
| 1919 | 20 | #1,899 | 0.02 |
| 1918 | 16 | #2,258 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 10 | #3,000 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 12 | #2,600 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 10 | #2,829 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 7 | #3,069 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 5 | #3,520 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Marva a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Marva has been given almost only to girls: 7 boys in 94 years of records.
Girls and boys named Marva: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Marva, and how old are they?
6,420 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 62% of the 10,369 Americans ever recorded as Marva. The median Marva alive today is 72 years old; half are between 63 and 80.
The 2020 Census counted 8,752 people named Marva (8,721 women and girls, 31 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,485 born in the U.S. The Census count is 17% above 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 | 1,430 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 3,520 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,080 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 334 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 36 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 20 |
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 Marva born?
The states with the most babies named Marva are Texas, Florida and California, with 21% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 719 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Florida | 434 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| California | 431 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 423 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 416 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 409 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Louisiana | 399 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Illinois | 378 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 322 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Missouri | 301 | not ranked | 1.1× |
Where Marva is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Marva is most over-represented in Utah: since 1913 it was given 3.9 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 Marva 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 10,890 babies since 1880, Marva is the most given (95% of them).
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 Marva
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 Marva and names like it
- Compare Marva and MarvieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1940sMarva peaked in 1948.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Marva since 1910.
- The top names of 1948The year the most babies were named Marva.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Marva alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with MMost given first.