Is 14 November the name day for Marie?

Not traditionally: Marie's established name days are 12 September in Czechia, 15 August in France, and 25 March in Estonia and Norway, and no calendar in the Behind the Name index gives 14 November to Marie. No source documents why this day was placed there.

What does the name Marie mean?

There is no settled answer. Behind the Name traces it to the Hebrew Miryam, lists sea of bitterness, rebelliousness and wished for child as competing theories, and says the meaning is not known for certain, most likely Egyptian in origin.

Is National Marie Day the same as National Maria Day or National Mary Day?

No, they are three separate observances on three separate dates. National Maria Day falls on 8 May, National Mary Day on 10 August, and National Marie Day on 14 November.

National Marie Day

Next celebratedSaturday, November 14, 2026

Every Marie already has a name day in Europe: 12 September in Czechia, 15 August in France, and 25 March in both Estonia and Norway. November 14 is the one date on that list with no calendar behind it.

See how to celebrate

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATENovember 14

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYNames

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A date no name-day calendar assigns to Marie.

No founder, organisation or campaign behind National Marie Day could be located, and no establishment record for it exists in any index checked. The name itself is far older and far better documented than the observance.

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INTRO

A girls' name that 26,864 French boys carried

French registrars entered the name Marie on the birth records of 26,864 boys between 1900 and 2023. The peak year was 1902, when 1,066 baby boys were given it. Sixty-one separate years recorded a hundred or more.

The standard reference work mentions the masculine Marie only in passing, as a name used "in pairings such as Jean-Marie". France's own register counts a compound as a separate name. Jean-Marie has 86,921 boys of its own, and the 26,864 are boys whose first name was Marie, standing alone.

National Marie Day belongs to them as much as to anyone. Four European countries already keep a name day for Marie, and not one of them keeps it in November.

ORIGINS

Marie Day history

INTRODUCTION

In 1900, one French girl in five was called Marie. The birth file for that year records 48,713 of them among 237,653 girls, or 20.50 percent.

No single decision produced that share. Behind the Name records Marie as very common in France since the 13th century, and France's own birth file only begins in 1900.

CHAPTER 01

Nobody knows what the name means

The one thing the name's own experts will not do is translate it. Behind the Name traces Marie back through Latin and Greek to the Hebrew Miryam, then states plainly that the meaning is not known for certain.

Three theories compete: sea of bitterness, rebelliousness, and wished for child. The reference favours a fourth possibility, that the name was Egyptian to begin with, derived in part from mry, beloved.

CHAPTER 02

Fifty-eight years at the top

From 1900 to 1958, Marie was the most popular girls' name in France in 58 of 59 years. The single break came in 1955, when Martine finished ahead, 20,838 births to 19,847.

Then it stopped. 1958 was the last year Marie led the French list, and it has not led since. By 2023 the name went to 597 girls, 0.18 percent of that year's births.

CHAPTER 03

A day nobody signed

November 14 is a crowded date in Europe's name-day calendars. Behind the Name lists 51 entries across 19 countries for it, from Sáva in Czechia to Sidoine in France, Irma in Slovakia and Aliz in Hungary.

Marie is in none of them. No founder or organisation behind the day has been located either. Searches of the United States Federal Register turn up no document naming it.

So National Marie Day rests on the name rather than on a record of its own. The name has never needed one.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Marie Day by the Numbers

2,231,347: French girls named Marie, 1900-2023
540,077: US girls named Marie, 1880-2025
2,193: US boys named Marie, 1885-1996
0.60%: French baby boys named Marie, 1900

TIMELINE

Timeline

Maria Sklodowska born in Warsaw

The Nobel Foundation records her as Marie Curie, née Maria Sklodowska, born on 7 November.

A second Nobel Prize

The Chemistry prize made her the first person ever awarded two Nobel Prizes, after the 1903 Physics prize she shared with Henri Becquerel and Pierre Curie.

Marie peaks in the United States

American parents gave the name to 12,743 girls, its highest annual count in the Social Security records and 13th place that year.

The last year at number one

Marie finished first among French girls' names for the final time and has not led the list since.

The last American boy named Marie

That year's Social Security file is the last of 107 to list any boy given the name, and those files omit any name with fewer than five births.

France records its last boys

Four baby boys were registered with the first name Marie, and no later year records three or more, the threshold below which the file groups a count away.

GOOD TO KNOW

National Marie Day Around the World

France

Marie's name day falls on 15 August, the Assumption, one of the eleven public holidays on the French government's 2026 list of fêtes légales.

Czechia

The Czech calendar gives Marie 12 September; Behind the Name files the spelling itself as French and Czech.

Estonia and Norway

Both calendars keep Marie on the same date, 25 March.

United States

Marie appears in all 146 Social Security year files since 1880 and has never ranked outside the top 1000, best at seventh in 1901 and worst at 648th in 2019.

All the elements emitting such radiation I have termed radioactive, and the new property of matter revealed in this emission has thus received the name radioactivity.

Marie CurieNobel Lecture, 11 December 1911

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Marie Day

REGISTERS

Marie wins in Germany only when middle names are counted.

The Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache splits its annual list into first names, following names, and the two combined. Marie sits outside the 2025 top ten of German first names yet tops the combined list, because for every 100 girls given it first, another 224 received it as a following name.

BLINDSPOT

The big registers cannot see a middle name

American and French name data record only the first given name, so neither can count a girl who carries Marie in second place. Any claim about Marie as a middle name has to come from a register that records one.

SPREAD

The name became a building block

France's birth file holds 589 different hyphenated girls' names built on Marie, covering 988,438 girls, led by Anne-Marie and Marie-Thérèse. On the boys' side there are 46 such names, covering 98,573 births.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Marie Day

Look up your Marie's birth year in the register

France publishes every first forename given since 1900, and the United States publishes almost every name given since 1880. Both files will tell you how many other people were given the name in the year your Marie was born.

KEEP

Keep the name day that fits the family

Where a family came from decides which day a Marie would traditionally keep, and the European calendars do not agree. Trace the branch the name came down and mark that country's date as well as this one.

READ

Read Marie Curie in her own words

The Nobel Foundation hosts the full text of the lecture she gave on 11 December 1911. In it she explains how radioactivity, polonium and radium each came by their names.

WRITE

Write down where the name entered your family

No source documents where 14 November came from, but a family can document its own Maries. One page of who was named after whom outlasts any calendar entry.

ASK

Ask a Marie whether the name comes first or second

A Marie who carries the name in second place appears in no count of first names. Ask, and you will turn up Maries who never show up in any of the figures on this page.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Marie Day?

1 / 8

How many French boys were registered with the first name Marie between 1900 and 2023?

Answer

No, it is an unofficial observance with no legal standing found in any jurisdiction checked, so offices, banks and schools stay open. The United States Federal Register holds no document naming it, and 14 November does not appear on France's official 2026 list of public holidays.