Marie
Meaning
form of Mary; famously borne by Marie Curie, physicist and chemist, the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences
The story
Marie is the French form of Mary, so woven into French life that for centuries it was given to daughters almost by default, and even to sons as a middle name in pious families. Its greatest bearer redefined what a woman in science could be: Marie Curie, born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, who discovered the elements polonium and radium with her husband Pierre and remains the only person ever to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, physics and chemistry. In America, her era was also the name's: Marie sat near the top of the records from the 1890s through the 1920s, then began a long, dignified glide, settling by the 1970s onto a steady plateau it has held ever since. No longer fashionable, no longer fading: simply permanent, like the elements its greatest bearer pulled glowing from the dark.
Marie around the world
One shared root links 17 names across 9 languages.
Shared root: from Hebrew Miryam, its meaning long debated; traditional glosses run "bitter" and "beloved", with an Egyptian root meaning "love" also argued
The constellation
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Marie peaked in the 1890s and the 1920s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
4,509 people · the #2,946 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 45,455 · median age 35
Among people named Marie living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 465 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Marie
People given the name Marie in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1940 to 1989. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Marie deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Marie truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Marie fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Marie travels
Haitian · A documented choice in Haitian families.
Keep exploring
Haitian baby names · Names of real princesses · Names of geniuses and inventors
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