Etymology & Historical Origin of the Baby Name Marquis

Marquis is a title of hereditary nobility ranked second after Duke in the English peerage system (the English also spell it Marquess rather than the French spelling Marquis). The word originated from the Old French “marchis” meaning “march” (and by “march” we don’t mean the military-style walk or the calendar month). “March” is also a vocabulary word signifying borderlands; mainly the area along the border of two countries (a region often subject to territorial disputes and hostility). And you know there were a lot of those pesky border clashes in medieval Europe! The title of Marquis, coined around the 14th century, was originally given to someone who ruled the marches (i.e., borders) around England, Scotland and Wales (the first marquess appointment came when King Richard II gave the title Marquess of Dublin to the Earl of Oxford in 1385). The female equivalent is Marchioness. As mentioned, Marquis originated with the French “marchis” (from the Middle Latin “marca” meaning “frontier”) but the title was used throughout Europe. Generally speaking the peerage rank of importance in England looked something like this: Duke –> Marquis –> Earl –> Viscount –> Baron. As a masculine given name, Marquis is a fairly modern invention coined by African-Americans in the 1970s. Naming one’s son Marquis in America doesn’t seem as silly as it might in Europe because we’ve never had the peerage system here in the United States. And thank goodness for that!

All About the Baby Name – Marquis

Personality

OF THE BOY NAME MARQUIS

The number Eight personality has everything to do with power, wealth and abundance. Somehow, this personality has been blessed on the material plane, but their authoritative and problem-solving traits provide evidence that their good fortunes are not just the luck of the lottery. They are well earned. This is the personality of CEOs and high-ranking military personnel. Eights are intensely active, hard-driving individuals. Success is only meaningful to them after a job well-done.  They are remarkable in their ability to see the larger picture right down to the smallest details, and organize a strategy around success. They then have the ability to direct a group around them toward any goal, and realize individual potential to get the most out of their team.

Popularity

OF THE BOY NAME MARQUIS

Marquis has maintained a position on the American male naming charts since 1970. The 1970s marked a fundamental shift in the naming practices among African-Americans. The Civil Rights Movement was giving way to a stronger national Black identity and African-Americans began expressing that identity through new ways of naming their children. Names of Arabic origin became popular in keeping with the Islamic faith adopted by large portions of Blacks, but another trend emerged whereby African-Americans took inspiration from the French. Names like Marcel, Antoine, Jermaine, Tyrell and Lamar all find their roots in French. Marquis is slightly different being a noble title rather than an actual given name, but all the more celebratory in our opinion! Considering Marquis is a name used almost exclusively by African-Americans (about 14% of the U.S. population) it’s remarkable how much success he’s enjoyed. Peaking in the early 1990s, Marquis isn’t quite as popular as he once was having declined to the bottom half of the charts today. Some people find “titles” as name a bit pretentious, but for others it’s an act of love and pride. Who can fault that?

Quick Facts

ON MARQUIS

GENDER:

Boy

ORIGIN:

African-American

NUMBER OF SYLLABLES:

2

RANKING POPULARITY:

800

PRONUNCIATION:

mahr-KEE

SIMPLE MEANING:

Ruler of the borderlands

Characteristics

OF MARQUIS

Authoritative

Powerful

Tough

Tenacious

Wealthy

Problem-solver

Achiever

Cultural References to the Baby Name – Marquis

Literary Characters

OF THE BABY NAME MARQUIS

We cannot find any significant literary characters by the name of Marquis

Childrens Books

ON THE BABY NAME MARQUIS

We cannot find any childrens books with the first name Marquis


Popular Songs

ON MARQUIS

The Sunset Marquis
a song by Vonda Shepard

Marquis in Spades
a song by Smashing Pumpkins [Explicit]

Marquis Cha-Cha
a song by The Fall

Famous People

NAMED MARQUIS

Marquis Grissom (baseball player)
Marquis Cooper (football player)
Marquis Daniels (basketball player)
Marquis Floyd (football player)
Marquis de Sade (notorious Frenchman)
Marquis de Lafayette (Revolutionary War hero)
Marques Haynes (former Harlem Globetrotter known as the world's greatest dribbler)

Children of Famous People

NAMED MARQUIS

We cannot find any children of famous people with the first name Marquis

Historic Figures

WITH THE NAME MARQUIS

Marquis de Sade (born Donatien Alphonse Francois) is known principally in connection with the association of his name with sadism, or the obtaining of pleasure through cruelty to others. The Marquis was a Frenchman of the aristocratic class who adhered to the principles of the French Revolution. His large body of written work is a paean to the lifestyle he admired and practiced – that of a sexual libertine of a violent bent, unfettered by law or morality. De Sade spent almost half of his life in prisons or insane asylums. Upon his death, much of his work was destroyed by his son, and subsequent generations disavowed his very existence. In the late 1940s, the then current Marquis de Sade stumbled upon information of his ancestor and his reputation, and set about learning more about him, collecting his extant works, and laboring to establish him as a progenitor of whom to be proud. Today, the Marquis de Sade remains a figure of fascination, and is as likely to be honored as a proponent of literary freedom and extreme individualism as a vilified proponent of immoral and, well, sadistic behavior.

Marquis de La Fayette (born Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier) was an aristocratic French general who served in both the American Revolutionary War, under George Washington (for whom he named his first son), and in the French Revolution. Born into a family of impeccable ancestry, the Marquis de La Fayette was a French military officer who distinguished himself in battle with the Continental Army of the American Revolution, and rallied the French government to support the American efforts to free themselves from Britain. Returning to France a hero, de La Fayette now became involved in his own country’s revolution, as a leader of the National Guard in charge of protecting the royal family. In 1824, de Lafayette made yet another voyage to America, touring all of the states and cementing the cordial relations between the United States and France. In 1834 the Marquis died of pneumonia – he is honored and revered in his own country, certainly, but his status in America is monumental, with countless representations of him from sea to sea.