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.

rarermore common
  • 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)

≈18,000 people, est.

2 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
379 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 1.0K (inferred from the name graph)

Belgium

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

MartensLatin(measured from records)
มารเทนสThai(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.

Where Martens is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
DE Germany#246≈18,000 est.≈1 in 4.5KlistedMartens190
NL Netherlands#7712,2351 in 1.4K12KMartens122
BE Belgium#2811,1991 in 1K11KMartens117
US United States—10,0961 in 33K10KMartens379
CA Canada#906≈3,500 est.≈1 in 11K—Martens175
NO Norway—6161 in 8.9K616Martens34
DK Denmark#9995701 in 10K570Martens69

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).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Martens is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Mexico, United States, Argentina, Brazil

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Märtens, Mårtens, Mártens

  • French surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Belgium, United States, Netherlands

    Also written Märtens, Mårtens

  • a separate name4 spellings in the group

    Also written Mårtens, Marṭens, Märtens

  • Russian surname11 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Poland

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Polish

    Also written Мартенс, Мартэнс, Martenş, Mårtens

  • Estonian surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Estonia, Netherlands, Finland, United States

    Languages: Estonian, Finnish

    Also written Märtens

  • Italian surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Italy, United States, Netherlands, Belgium

    Also written Märtens

47 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1400160018002000Dirk Martens, b. 1446Conrad Martens, b. 1801Eduard Karl von Martens, b. 1831Adolf Martens, b. 1850Michel de Ghelderode, b. 1898Wilfried Martens, b. 1936Ludo Martens, b. 1946Florian Martens, b. 1958Dirk Martens, b. 1964Lieke Martens, b. 1992

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)

FormalDear Martens,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 44 sources across 22 countries.

Official registers attesting Martens
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
NL NetherlandsCBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007)200712K#36
BE BelgiumFamilienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register)200811K#18
BE BelgiumStatbel — Noms de famille (family names)—11K#18
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201010K#3,540
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020209.9K#3,513
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020009.7K#3,353
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—616#2,100
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—570#743
NO NorwaySSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891)2025308—
NO NorwaySSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891)2024306—
NO NorwaySSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891)2023298—
NO NorwaySSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891)2022293—

Reference works 9

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?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/martens

The 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.

See how Martens parses inside a full name →