Marlowe

MAHR-loh

The name Marlowe comes from an English surname derived from a place name in Buckinghamshire: Maere-lafe, combining Old English mere (“lake, pool”) and lāf (“remnants, leavings”), referring to land left behind after a lake drained.

US Rank 2024

No. 624

Births

476

The town of Great Marlow sits on the Thames.

The surname’s literary prestige comes from Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), the Elizabethan playwright of Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine, a contemporary and rival of Shakespeare.

What the name Marlowe means

Detective fiction added Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s iconic private eye, who appeared in novels from The Big Sleep (1939) onward.

Marlowe sits at No. 624 with 476 births in the US. Its peak is 2024 at No. 624 with 476 births, meaning the name is currently at its all-time high and entering the charts with strong momentum as a literary-surname pick for girls.

The name gained celebrity visibility when actress Sienna Miller named her daughter Marlowe in 2012. Actor Jason Schwartzman also chose it for his daughter. These high-profile uses helped establish the name as distinctly feminine in its current revival.

The 2 syllables carry a warm, rounded quality: the open ar vowel in the first beat and the long oh in the second create a name that sounds both vintage and modern. The -owe spelling distinguishes it from the town’s modern form Marlow.

Marlowe fits the trend of literary and surname names for girls, alongside choices like Harper, Emerson and Lennon. Its associations with Elizabethan drama and hard-boiled fiction give it an intellectual edge that few modern coinages can match.

The name is rare outside the US and UK, confirming its English-language specificity. Parents who choose Marlowe tend to value cultural references and the sense of a name that carries stories within it.