Marin
A surname of French and Romance origin, often meaning “of the sea” or derived from a saint’s name.
The #784 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 7,032 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Marin comes from Latin marinus, meaning “of the sea.” In French and other Romance languages, it was used both as an adjective and as a personal name, and the surname could therefore arise either as a byname for someone connected with the sea or as a shortened form of a saint’s name. Some 19th-century writers also noted that it could function as a occupational-style name in the sense of “sailor” or “mariner.”
History
The name is well established in France and elsewhere in the Romance-speaking world, where it appears in several related forms such as Marinier and Mariner. Historical surname dictionaries also treat it as potentially linked to Christian naming, since several saints were called Marin. In English-language records it often appears as a borrowing from French rather than as an independent native English surname.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same Latin root lies behind modern words like “marine” and “mariner.”
From the historical record
“M A R N E R (A. - Fr. - Lat.) Mariner, Sailor [M.E. O.Fr. mariner (Fr. marin, marinier) ; Lat. marin-us, marine] MARPLE (Eng.) Bel. to Marple, anc. Murpull = (app.) the Moor-Pool [O.E. mdr-\-pul]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)