Martial
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Martial is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Cameroon than in any other country, where it is the 36th most common given name. Recorded meaning: From Latin Martialis, 'of Mars' or 'war-like'.
- CMCameroon≈1 in 716(inferred from the name graph)
- FRFrance≈1 in 3.6K
- USUnited States1 in 840K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Cameroon (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 313 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 716 (inferred from the name graph)
≈39,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Cameroon, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
From Latin Martialis, 'of Mars' or 'war-like'.
Sources 1
- Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Martial 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CM Cameroon | #36 | ≈39,000 est. | ≈1 in 716 | — | Martial | 41 |
| FR France | #476 | ≈19,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.6K | 37K | Martial | 313 |
| CI Côte d’Ivoire | — | ≈14,000 est. | ≈1 in 2K | — | Martial | 31 |
| CD Congo - Kinshasa | #408 | ≈6,800 est. | ≈1 in 15K | 1 | Martial | 4 |
| BJ Benin | #103 | ≈2,100 est. | ≈1 in 6.2K | — | Martial | 25 |
| CF Central African Republic | — | ≈790 est. | ≈1 in 7.6K | 5 | — | 11 |
| US United States | — | 396 | 1 in 840K | 391 | Martial | 136 |
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); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Wikidata humans by citizenship — given & family names; ANE — Liste provisoire des candidats (legislatives & regionales 2025). 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)
Martial is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, Comme Mars était le dieu de la guerre chez les Romains (l’équivalent d’Arès chez les Grecs), tout ce qui a trait à la guerre, à l’armée, voire au caractère belliqueux porte le qualificatif de martial : cour martiale, loi martiale…
as a name2500 noms propres devenus communs : dictionnaire étymologique (éponymes, antonomases et hypallages)
In French, Du latin Martialis, « de Mars »; nom de saint Martial (fête locale le 30 juin).
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
In French, Du latin Martialis, « dédié à Mars »; fête le 11 juillet.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
In French, Dérivé de Martin; origine latine, signifie « guerrier ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In French, du nom latin Martiālis, dérivé de Mars.
as a nameDictionnaire des noms de famille du Canada français. Anthroponymie et généalogie. 2e édition
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)
- Saint Martialb. 300FR3rd century founding bishop of Limoges
- Joseph Marie Martial Walkerb. 1784USAmerican politician, Louisiana (1784-1856)
- Martial de Guernon-Ranvilleb. 1787FRFrench magistrate and politician (1787-1866)
- Martial Caillebotteb. 1853FRFrench photographer, composer and philatelist (1853–1910)
- Martial Gueroultb. 1891FRFrench philosopher (1891–1976)
- Martial Valinb. 1898FRFrench aviator (1898-1980)
- Martial Célestinb. 1913HTHaitian Prime Minister (1913-2011)
- Martial Solalb. 1927FRFrench jazz pianist and composer (1927–2024)
- Martial Raysseb. 1936FRFrench plastician (born 1936)
- Patrick de Carolisb. 1953FRnot in their usual nameFrench journalist
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 44 sources across 26 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024) | 2024 | 37K | #1,654 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 391 | #24,355 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 5 | #24,355 |
| CF Central African Republic | ANE — Liste provisoire des candidats (legislatives & regionales 2025) | 2025 | 5 | #15 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2015 | 5 | — |
| CD Congo - Kinshasa | Wikidata humans by citizenship — given & family names | — | 1 | #782 |
| FR France | Dictionnaire Généalogique des Prénoms (Athias, 2007) | — | — | — |
| FR France | Dictionary of French Prénoms (Benoist, 2009) | — | — | — |
| FR France | Le Grand Guide des Prénoms | — | — | — |
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
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 Martial mean, and where does it come from?
- From Latin Martialis, 'of Mars' or 'war-like'. Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).
- What are other forms of the name Martial?
- In the etymology graph, Marcus, Marcial and Martinus are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Is Martial a male or female name?
- Martial 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.
- In which country does Martial have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 39 thousand people named Martial in Cameroon, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled martial.
- How common is the name Martial?
- In the United States, the national register counted 396 people named Martial in 2020, about 1 in 840 thousand residents.
- How common is Martial compared with other names?
- In Cameroon, Martial is the 36th most common given name of 9,064 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Martial?
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/martialThe same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.
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, “Martial” — the 36th most common given name in Cameroon. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.