Marcel
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in French: From Latin Marcellus, diminutive of Marcus; linked to Mars
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/maʁsɛl/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Marcel is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country, where it is the 99th most common given name.
- CHSwitzerland≈1 in 397(inferred from the name graph)
- PLPoland1 in 462
- DEGermany≈1 in 487
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Marcel itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- #986 (measured from records)
- 7 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 425 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 397 (inferred from the name graph)
≈160,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Switzerland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Marsel in HU Hungary.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
From Latin Marcellus, diminutive of Marcus; linked to Mars.
Sources 1
- Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Attested across 6 languages in the etymology graph.
How Marcel is read(measured from records)
Marcel is one spelling over 5 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- French36%
From Latin Marcellus, diminutive of Marcus; linked to Mars.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
a male given name, equivalent to English Marcel, traditionally popular in France, borne by a 3rd century saint
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- German24%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Marcel in German.
- English16%
A hairstyle characterized by deep waves made by a curling iron.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Spanish5.3%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Marcel in Spanish.
- Portuguese5.3%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Marcel in Portuguese.
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Marcel, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Marcel counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #99 | ≈160,000 est. | ≈1 in 487 | listed | Marcel | 276 |
| PL Poland | #221 | 82,940 | 1 in 462 | 83K | Marcel | 119 |
| FR France | #89 | ≈71,000 est. | ≈1 in 959 | 471K | Marcel | 365 |
| HU Hungary | — | 25,793as Marcell | 1 in 379 | 26K | Marsel | 3 |
| CH Switzerland | #11 | ≈21,000 est. | ≈1 in 397 | 59 | Marcel | 173 |
| CZ Czechia | #172 | 17,390 | 1 in 615 | 17K | Marcel | 120 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); dane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20); Nyilvántartó — Top-100 given names in population (2020–2025); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); MVČR — living population register 2017. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Marcel is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
French: from the Latin name Marcellus, originally a diminutive of Marcus. The name has always been popular in France as it was borne by a 3rd-century missionary to Gaul, martyred at Bourges with his companion Anastasius. It is now occasionally also used in the English-speaking world.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
from the personal name Marcel (Latin Marcellus, a diminutive of Marcus (see Mark 1), which was borne by a 3rd-century missionary to Gaul who was martyred at Bourges with his companion Anastasius).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
From Latin Marcellus, a diminutive of }Marcus (see main dictionary). It owes its popularity in France to a 3rdcentury missionary of this name, martyred at Bourges. Feminine form: Marcelle.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Marcellus Ib. 255ITnot in their usual namepope
- Marcellus IIb. 1501ITnot in their usual namepope of the Catholic Church and bishop of Rome from 9 April to 1 May 1555
- Marcel Proustb. 1871FRFrench novelist, critic and essayist (1871–1922)
- Marcel Maussb. 1872FRFrench sociologist and anthropologist (1872-1950)
- Marcel Ophulsb. 1927FRGerman-French filmmaker (1927–2025)
- Jean-Claude Brialyb. 1933FRnot in their usual nameFrench actor and director (1933-2007)
- Alain Delonb. 1935FRnot in their usual nameFrench actor (1935–2024)
- Gérard Depardieub. 1948FRnot in their usual nameFrench actor (born 1948)
- Marcel Sabitzerb. 1994ATAustrian footballer
- Benjamin Pavardb. 1996FRnot in their usual nameFrench footballer (born 1996)
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 127 sources across 67 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024) | 2024 | 471K | #111 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20) | 2026 | 83K | #69 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 80K | #69 |
| CZ Czechia | MVČR — living population register 2017 | — | 17K | #149 |
| CZ Czechia | naše jména — 2016 MVČR snapshot | — | 8.7K | #169 |
| PL Poland | Ministry of Digitalization — Imiona nadawane dzieciom w Polsce (2000–present) | 2025 | 2.3K | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 9 | #7,580 |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Marcel mean, and where does it come from?
- From Latin Marcellus, diminutive of Marcus; linked to Mars. Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).
- What are other forms of the name Marcel?
- In the etymology graph, Marcelo, Marcello and Marcell are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Marcel have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 165 thousand people named Marcel in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled marcel.
- Is Marcel a male or female name?
- Marcel 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.
- How do you pronounce Marcel?
- A machine transcription gives /maʁsɛl/ (IPA) for French.
- How common is the name Marcel?
- In Poland, the national register counted 82,940 people named Marcel in 2026, about 1 in 462 residents.
- How common is Marcel compared with other names?
- In Germany, Marcel is the 99th most common given name of 156,202 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Marcel?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/marcelThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Marcel” — the 99th most common given name in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.