Mario

Spellings & scripts●

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 13 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◐

Mario is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Croatian given name264K records spelled Mario52 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Croatia, United States, Philippines, Bulgaria

  Languages: Croatian, Bulgarian, Russian

  Also written Марио, Маріо, Mário, Maŕio, Márió

• a separate given name194K records spelled Mario6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Ecuador, Italy, United Kingdom

  Also written Mário, Märio, Marío, Márió, Marió

• Catalan given name113K records spelled Mario2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, Andorra, Argentina

  Also written Mário

• Czech given name19K records spelled Mario7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Czechia, Slovakia, United States, Spain

  Languages: Czech, Slovak

  Also written Mário, Márió

• Lao given name14K records spelled Mario57 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Laos, United States, Thailand, Italy

  Languages: Lao, Thai

  Also written มาริโอ, มาริโอ้, มีรีวี, มารีโอ้, Maryo

96 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●

Mario 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.

• From the Roman family name Marius (see main dictionary), but in modern times generally taken as a masculine equivalent of MARIA.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In Spanish, a male given name, equivalent to English Marius

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

• In Spanish, del latín Marius, nombre gentilicio romano, quizá de Marte/etrusco Maris

  as a name·Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios

• In Italian, do nome lat. Marius; sobrenome fixado como filho de Ser Mario

  as a name·Dicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

• In Italian, Etimologia probabilmente legata a Marte; spesso interpretato come maschile di Maria. S. Mario martire (10 gennaio).

  as a name·Dizionario Dei Nomi e Cognomi Italiani

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) — 127 years between 1897–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Mario Puzob. 1920USAmerican author, screenwriter, and journalist
• Mario Vargas Llosab. 1936PEPeruvian, Spanish and Dominican novelist and writer (1936–2025)
• Pope Francisb. 1936ARnot in their usual name266th pope of the Catholic Church from 2013 to 2025 (1936–2025)
• Mario Molinab. 1943MXMexican chemical engineer (1943–2020)
• Mario Montib. 1943ITItalian economist and politician (1943-)
• Mario Draghib. 1947ITItalian economist, academic, banker and politician; former prime minister of Italy
• Miguel Díaz-Canelb. 1960CUnot in their usual nameFirst Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and top leader of Cuba since 2021
• Mario Gómezb. 1985DEGerman-Spanish association football player (born 1985)
• Mario Mandžukićb. 1986HRCroatian association football player (born 1986)
• Mario Balotellib. 1990ITItalian association football player

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 · 1,638 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Mario?

We estimate roughly 1.6 million people bear Mario (counting its spellings and scripts) across 15 countries in our records.

In which country does Mario have the most bearers?

Mario is most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is most often spelled mario.

Where is Mario most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Mario is densest in the Czechia — about 1 in 28 people — even though Argentina holds more of our records for it.

How common is Mario compared with other names?

In Argentina, Mario is the 59th most common given name of 517,176 given names recorded there.

Is Mario a male or female name?

Mario is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Mario mean?

Recorded meaning: from the personal name Mario, from the Latin personal name Marias, which is probably of Etruscan origin, but was widely adopted from an early date in the Christian era as a male equivalent of the fema…