Marina
Meaning
of the sea; also a real Japanese given name (真里奈, 麻里奈) carried by singers and idols, while remaining a fully established Western name in its own right
Famously borne by Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet.
The story
Marina is the feminine form of Marinus, a Roman name that Behind the Name derives either from the family name Marius or from the Latin marinus, "of the sea", and it was borne by early saints; in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Behind the Name notes, Saint Margaret of Antioch is known as Marina. The American record climbed, with pauses, across a century: about 42 girls in the 1890s, about 1,900 in the 1950s, about 10,200 in the 1990s, then about 4,400 in the 2010s and about 2,700 so far this decade. Brazil holds about 221,700 Marinas, median age 29, with strong decades on both sides of the millennium. Possibly the sea at its root, saints at its back, and a record given at scale on two continents for well over a century and counting.
Marina in song
Marina
Dorival Caymmi (1947)
A man scolds his love for putting on too much makeup, in the sweetest possible way, and Brazil has adored it ever since.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Marina peaked in the 1990s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
Popularity in Brazil
222,695 people · the #143 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 912 · median age 29
Among people named Marina living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 15,964 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Marina
Most people given the name Marina in the United States were born between 1970 and 2009. The Marina you meet today is most often in her 20s or 30s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Marina deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Marina 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 Marina fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Russian baby names · Dual-language baby names · Names of poets and writers
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