Mar

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Màr in TN Tunisia, MA Morocco, Marr in US United States, Mar' in ID Indonesia and Mãr in DZ Algeria.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 29 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Mar is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English surname198K records spelled Mar79 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Maer, Mãr, Màr, Mär, Mâr

• Hindi surname70K records spelled Mar44 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, United States

  Languages: Hindi, Assamese, Marathi

  Also written Maar, Maru, মার, Marr, মারু

• a separate name29K records spelled Mar5 spellings in the group

  Also written Már, Mår, Mār, Mär

• French given name22K records spelled Mar14 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Senegal, Spain, Tunisia

  Also written Màr, Mãr, Mâr, Mär, Mar'

• a separate name16K records spelled Mar2 spellings in the group

  Also written Már

• Burmese given name13K records spelled Mar25 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Myanmar (Burma)

  Also written Mâř, Mãř, Mář, Mâr, Màř

• Arabic given name11K records spelled Mar34 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Jordan

  Also written Màr, Mãr, Mâr, Mär, Mår

69 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Mar is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• topographic name for someone living by the sea, from mar ‘sea’ (Latin mare).

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• nickname from Middle High German mar(w) ‘tender’, ‘delicate’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• from a short form of the personal name Markus or Mark, Hungarian forms of Marcus and Mark; or possibly from the personal name Mdrton, Hungarian form of Martin.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In English, To spoil; to ruin; to scathe; to damage.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• sailor

  as a name·Dicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 93 years between 1913–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Alexander Ramsay of Marb. 1919GBOnly child of HRH Princess Patricia of Connaught (1919-2000)
• Ma Do-Sikb. 1944KRnot in their usual nameactor
• Ma Kwang-soob. 1951KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean poet, novelist, and scholar (1951–2017)
• Mar Carrerab. 1964ESSpanish actress
• Marcos Benjamin Leeb. 1977KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actor
• Yoo Da-inb. 1984KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean actress
• Ma Jae-Yoonb. 1987KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean electronic sports player
• Ma Sang-hoonb. 1991KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean association football player (1991-)
• Ma Se-geonb. 1994KRnot in their usual nameSouth Korean fencer
• Mar HershensonESAmerican electrical engineer and entrepreneur

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 614 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Mar?

We estimate roughly 24 thousand people bear Mar (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Mar have the most bearers?

Mar is most frequently recorded in Peru, where it is most often spelled mar.

Where is Mar most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Mar is densest in Iceland — about 1 in 107 people — even though Peru holds more of our records for it.

What does the name Mar mean?

Recorded meaning: from Germanic *marah 'horse', or ahd.