Marina
- Pronunciation
- [Ma-ri-na]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Not recorded
- Origin
- English
Marina is a name traditionally given to a girl of English origin. Our sources do not preserve a single agreed-upon literal translation for this particular name, so we list its meaning as unrecorded rather than guess at one. Browse more English baby names or search the full library by meaning.
About the Name Marina
Marina descends from the Latin marina meaning "of the sea" — derived from mare (sea). The name has been used continuously across Italian-Catholic, Spanish-speaking, and broader European naming traditions for centuries, anchored by Saint Marina of Antioch (4th century CE).
Notable bearers include American basketball player Marina Mabrey (born 1996, the American WNBA player); American singer Marina Diamandis (using the stage name Marina, born 1985, the iconic Welsh-Greek pop singer); contemporary American filmmaker Marina Abramović (born 1946, the iconic Serbian performance artist); and the iconic Russian-American filmmaker Marina Tsvetaeva.
Marina has been continuously used in Spanish-speaking American, Italian-American, and Eastern European-American communities for over a century. The name's American climb has been substantial: the name climbed into the US top 300 girls' rank by 1995 and the top 300 since. The name's appeal is its layered Latin-Italian-Spanish-Catholic-multi-cultural pedigree combined with three flowing syllables — the in-built sea/maritime etymological register, the strong Saint Marina religious anchor and Marina Abramović contemporary art cultural anchor, and the elegant Latinate sophistication. Three flowing syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to multi-cultural names. The name reads as both classical-Latin and contemporary American. Common nicknames Mari (the dominant warm short form, casual and warm), Marin (back-end shortening), Rina, Mar, and the rare Ina each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Marina, Marisa (the related Italian alternate), and Marin have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Marina (essentially identical across Italian/Spanish/Portuguese/Russian/Polish/German), Marine (French), and the original Latin marina.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Marina
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Marina by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2001 with 913 girls named Marina (girl rank #335 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #602 for girls (488 US births). That's 267 places below its 2001 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Marina Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Marina the strongest states are Massachusetts, California, Connecticut.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | #425 | 126 |
| 2 | California | #436 | 769 |
| 3 | Connecticut | #468 | 48 |
| 4 | Nevada | #489 | 24 |
| 5 | Washington | #513 | 132 |
| 6 | Florida | #533 | 314 |
| 7 | New Jersey | #571 | 114 |
| 8 | Kansas | #573 | 18 |
| 9 | Oregon | #587 | 19 |
| 10 | Arizona | #587 | 98 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | #899 | 44 |
| 2 | Indiana | #865 | 29 |
| 3 | Tennessee | #843 | 35 |
| 4 | Wisconsin | #836 | 35 |
| 5 | Ohio | #822 | 59 |
| 6 | North Carolina | #815 | 59 |
| 7 | South Carolina | #759 | 24 |
| 8 | Pennsylvania | #743 | 124 |
| 9 | Minnesota | #734 | 45 |
| 10 | Utah | #715 | 22 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Marina in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Marina?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Marina to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Marina against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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