Martens
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in German: Surname variant showing vowel alternation a~e in the atlas plate; bearer count 9426
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈmɑɹtənz/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Martens is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country. In Belgium it is the 28th most common surname.
- BEBelgium1 in 1K(measured from records)
- NLNetherlands1 in 1.4K
- DEGermany≈1 in 4.5K
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.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 379 (measured from records)
- 1 in 1.0K (inferred from the name graph)
≈18,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Belgium
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
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)
Surname variant showing vowel alternation a~e in the atlas plate; bearer count 9426.
Sources 1
- Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
How Martens is read(measured from records)
Martens is one spelling over 4 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.
- English56%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Martens in English.
- German17%
Surname variant showing vowel alternation a~e in the atlas plate; bearer count 9426.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
Patronymic surname from Martin; variant with a-vowel. Bearer count: 9894.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
Patronym zu lat. Martinus; Hauptkarte zeigt a/e-Umlaut im Stammvokal und volle vs. abgeschwächte Endungen. 6 Typen/9894 Tokens.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
Patronym zu Martin < lat. Martinus; 9.426 Belege. Karte zeigt Endsilbenschwächung in -ens/-en.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
Genitivform zu Martin; zeigt die a/e-Vokalvariation in der Schreibweise. 7422 Träger.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
- Dutch7.2%
a surname originating as a patronymic
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Spanish6.3%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Martens in Spanish.
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.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Martens 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 | #246 | ≈18,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.5K | listed | Martens | 190 |
| NL Netherlands | #77 | 12,235 | 1 in 1.4K | 12K | Martens | 122 |
| BE Belgium | #28 | 11,199 | 1 in 1K | 11K | Martens | 117 |
| US United States | — | 10,096 | 1 in 33K | 10K | Martens | 379 |
| CA Canada | #906 | ≈3,500 est. | ≈1 in 11K | — | Martens | 175 |
| NO Norway | — | 616 | 1 in 8.9K | 616 | Martens | 34 |
| DK Denmark | #999 | 570 | 1 in 10K | 570 | Martens | 69 |
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: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; the dfa-band-1 register; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population). 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).
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Dirk Martensb. 1446BEFlemish printer
- Conrad Martensb. 1801GBBritish artist (1801-1878)
- Eduard Karl von Martensb. 1831DEGerman zoologist (1831-1904)
- Adolf Martensb. 1850DEGerman metallurgist (1850–1914)
- Michel de Ghelderodeb. 1898BEnot in their usual nameBelgian playwright (1898–1962)
- Wilfried Martensb. 1936BEBelgian politician (1936–2013)
- Ludo Martensb. 1946BEBelgian activist (1946–2011)
- Florian Martensb. 1958DEGerman actor
- Dirk Martensb. 1964DEGerman actor
- Lieke Martensb. 1992NLDutch female association football player
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)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 44 sources across 22 countries.
Reference works 9
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Søndergaard, Georg, Danske efternavne (Lademann 1984/1991)
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 Martens mean, and where does it come from?
- Surname variant showing vowel alternation a~e in the atlas plate; bearer count 9426. Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus.
- How do you pronounce Martens?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈmɑɹtənz/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Martens have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 18 thousand people named Martens in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled martens.
- Where is Martens most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Martens is densest in Belgium — about 1 in 1.0 thousand people — even though Germany holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Martens?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 12,235 people named Martens in 2007, about 1 in 1.4 thousand residents.
- How common is Martens compared with other names?
- In Germany, Martens is the 246th most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Martens?
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/martensThe 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, “Martens” — the 246th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.