Recorded 1889–2025 · United States
Marvel was most popular in 1929, when 181 American babies were given the name — ranking #919 that year. In 2025 it ranked #6,962, with 36 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 6,569 people named Marvel.
Marvel first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1889, which makes it about 136 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 136 of the 137 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 6,569 American births named Marvel between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 2,236 are estimated to be alive today.
36 American babies were named Marvel in 2025, ranking #6,962 that year.
Marvel is rising. Across 2021–2025 it averaged 48 births a year, against 29 a year across 2011–2015 — a change of +64% over the decade.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Marvel is a unisex name — 79.1% of the 6,569 Americans given it were girls and 20.9% were boys. It changed hands: since 2021 it has gone mainly to boys, having gone mainly to girls before that. In births since 2016 it is 52% girls and 48% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 2,236 Americans named Marvel are alive today — 34% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 55 years old, and half are between 12 and 77. That is a wide band, the mark of a name in steady use across generations rather than a passing fashion.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Marvel on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org