Marlon: Meaning of Baby Name Marlon

About the Name Marlon

Marlon is a French-origin name generally interpreted as a diminutive of Merle or a derivative of the Old French marle, yielding the evocative meaning "little falcon" — a bird associated in medieval heraldry with swiftness, keen vision, and noble bearing. The falcon imagery gives the name a quietly powerful connotation that suits both its French elegance and its strong consonant structure. The name moved from French-speaking Europe into the broader English-language naming pool over centuries, aided by surname use and cultural transmission.

In US naming, Marlon first entered the Social Security top-1000 in 2000, reaching its peak rank of #503 in 2001. It has maintained a long, steady presence across more than two decades: as recently as 2023, 240 boys received the name at rank #942, and 2022 saw 225 at rank #993. The total across top-1000 years stands at more than 8,387 — a testament to the name's durable following. Unlike many of its contemporaries, Marlon has neither spiked dramatically nor vanished; it has simply persisted with the quiet confidence of a name that knows what it is.

Part of Marlon's staying power is its cinematic and musical associations: the name has been carried by prominent artists and performers whose work left lasting cultural marks, keeping it in American consciousness without requiring it to chase trends. The variant Marlin offers a slightly different spelling for families who prefer it. At three syllables with a strong central consonant, Marlon strikes a balance between romance and authority that remains genuinely appealing.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Marlon

1,414

French baby names in our dictionary

571

French male names

379

6-letter M-names in our dictionary

767

M-male names total

2000–2023

years of US SSA records (23 total)

8,387

total US births named Marlon (all years)

US Popularity History (2000–2023)

📉 Falling fast: Marlon dropped 94 places in the US boys ranking over the last 5 years (#848 in 2018 → #942 in 2023).

Annual US births named Marlon by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2006 with 509 boys named Marlon (boy rank #509 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2023, ranked #942 for boys (240 US births). That's 433 places below its 2006 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.

Where in the US Is Marlon Most Popular?

Average boy-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 boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Marlon the strongest states are Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi.

Strongest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Louisiana	#550	68
2	Maryland	#570	66
3	Mississippi	#598	15
4	Florida	#635	227
5	Alabama	#658	20
6	New Jersey	#722	76
7	Massachusetts	#768	43
8	California	#791	200
9	New York	#806	157
10	Virginia	#819	67

Weakest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	North Carolina	#981	38
2	Georgia	#900	71
3	Arizona	#889	29
4	Illinois	#881	40
5	Indiana	#857	20
6	Michigan	#854	33
7	Missouri	#853	24
8	Tennessee	#829	36
9	Texas	#821	272
10	Virginia	#819	67

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Marlon in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
Marlin	A Form Of Merle.	Male	English

Looking for names like Marlon?

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.

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Compare Marlon to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Marlon against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Marlon vs Liam 239,320 births since 2014

Marlon vs Noah 230,181 births since 2014

Marlon vs Oliver 164,076 births since 2014

Marlon vs William 159,918 births since 2014

Marlon vs James 157,850 births since 2014

Marlon vs Elijah 153,351 births since 2014

Marlon vs Benjamin 147,449 births since 2014

Marlon vs Lucas 141,302 births since 2014

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