Marlowe
Meaning
from a surname, 'remnants of a lake' in Old English
The story
Marlowe comes from a surname that goes back to a place name meaning "remnants of a lake" in Old English, and Behind the Name's famous bearer of the surname is the playwright Christopher Marlowe, who lived from 1564 to 1593. The American ledger carried it quietly on both sides for a century: boys between about 75 and 190 a decade from the 1910s onward, girls mostly in the double digits. Then the girls' line moved and the boys' line held its pace: about 250 girls in the 2000s, about 1,870 in the 2010s, and about 2,330 so far this decade, alongside about 190 boys in the same span. An Old English lakebed, an Elizabethan playwright, and a century-old two-lane record where one lane suddenly carries nearly all the traffic.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Marlowe peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
When you meet Marlowe
Most people given the name Marlowe in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Marlowe deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Marlowe 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 Marlowe fits with your family’s names and surname.
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