If you think the world-famous mime had the last word on this one, you’re missing a great story.
Thanks to Stephanie for suggesting one from her family tree. Our Baby Name of the Day is Marcel.
Marcel has plenty of cousins currently ranked in the US Top 1000. Marcus and Marco are fashionable. Mark and Marc have both fallen from their heights, but remain in use.
Marcus was a Roman given name, derived from either Mars, the god of war, or possibly a Greek word meaning tender, or maybe mas – male, the root of masculine. Marcellus would have originally been a diminutive, but eventually became a family name and a given name on its own. A pair of early popes answered to Marcellus, and one is a saint.
In English, Marcel is quite rare. That’s not the case in other European languages. He’s mar SELL in French, but MAHR tsel in Polish. The entire cluster of Marc- names is well worn, from the Italian Marcello to the Czech Marek.
Marcel has ranked in the US Top 1000 every year since 1911. He’s never made higher than the 500s, and he came in at a frosty #889 in 2009. That’s more common than many would guess. There are no shortage of notable Marcels, from French military commanders to athletes.
Most American parents today probably think of Ross’ pet monkey on Friends. But there are two other well-known Marcels that could change his image.
Marcel DuChamp was an artist and an unapologetic rebel. He was big in the Dadaist and Surrealist movements; Peggy Guggeheim relied on his advice. We remember the uproar caused by his 1917 submission of Fountain – a urinal – to the Society of Independent Artists show.
But with his readymades – found objects he presented as art – DuChamp was less a Picasso, more a philosopher. The Prix Marcel Duchamp has been given in France every year since 2000 to a promising young artist. He lacks the American bravado of Jackson, but Marcel is another valid choice from the art world.
Then there’s Marcel Marceau.
Born in France, he was just a teenager when his Jewish family fled the Nazi occupation. His father was a kosher butcher who died at Auschwitz. Marcel and his older brother Alain joined the French Resistance, working to save children from the concentration camps. This was the genesis of his skills – Marceau mimed to keep the children quiet during escapes.
In the 1950s, he started to tour the world, promoting l’art du silence – the art of silence. Johnny Carson invited him as a frequent guest on his show; plenty of other television hosts did the same. He even scored an Emmy for his work on Your Show of Shows.
It makes for a great story, and yet Marcel remains decidedly off-trend. It is easy to imagine a girl answering to Marcella than a boy called Marcel. Perhaps it is his -el ending, which seems the tiniest bit feminine. Or maybe it is simply that DuChamp and Marceau own the name so completely that it doesn’t seem available for others to consider. He’s equally out of favor in France today, too.
And yet, his story has some real appeal. It is hard to imagine parents choosing this one out of the blue circa 2011, but if you’re lucky enough to find Marcel on your family tree, he might present an intriguing option.
Un marcel is also what is affectionately known as a “wife beater” shirt in English.
Yikes! So that’s a “no” for French speakers … except he did have a huge spike in France in the 1920s. Would it be like calling a “wife beater” a Bob?
And Marcel the Shell With Shoes on, of course. 😉
Where have I been, and what have I been doing with my life? LOVE it. I can’t even figure out why it is so funny, but I can’t stop watching. “Guess what I do for adventure? I hang glide on a Dorito.” Watch here:
In Polish it is Marceli.
I like Marcel, don’t know if I’d use it. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, this was quite trendy during the 1980s.
Marcel feels weak in a way that Gabriel and Raphael lack. Probably since Raphael and Gabriel have a biblical association, while Marcel projects a “French-iness”… Not to be insulting to the French, but there’s an air that some of the “artsy” names convey (Maurice has the same issue.)
But just to completely destroy my own hypothesis. The only Marcel, I know IRL played Div 1 college football, closely resembles Ving Rhames and is a corrections officer…
For some reason, Marcel doesn’t strike me as unusual. I think it would wear just fine on a little boy.
Thanks for doing this as a Name of the Day, Abby! My great-uncle is named Marcel (our family roots are French-Candian), and I have considered using this name to honor him. Of course, I would probably relegate it to the middle, where it would cause less problems. It would be concidered too “poncey” here, I would think. That being said, Edward Marcel is one of my top choices.
I didn’t know that my great uncle’s name was Marcel until very recently. We always call him Uncle “Gabby” which is a play on our last name. He is an awesome man, and a worthy namesake. I would applaud anyone who was brave enough to use it in the first place!
Edward Marcel is a handsome name!
I love the idea of Edward Marcel.
Marcela is a popular name in Latin America, particularly among women in their thirties. I know Marcelas from Colombia, Argentina and Mexico.
I think I’ve read too many fashion-conscious books from the 1920s, because when I saw this BNotD my thoughts immediately went to Marcel Grateau, inventor of curling rods. In some of the books I’ve read, having your hair curled with curling rods is called getting a “Marcel”. Apparently some curling irons are stilled called Marcel irons. There is also Gabriel Marcel, the ex-atheist and opponent to antisemitism who was both a leading Christian existentialist and playwright in the first half of the 20th century. For years he hosted a weekly philosophical discussion attended by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre and Paul Ricoeur.
Even though this would be a way of honouring both my husband and his mother’s French Metis heritage, I don’t see us ever using it. Yes, I’m turned off by that “el” ending.
I prefer Marc to Marcel, though I really like Marcelle for a girl. I think you’re probably right about the -el ending sounding feminine to American ears; Raphael has made it onto the charts in recent years, but is still down in the 600s somewhere.
I think Marcello is fabulous but really only usable by someone with Italian heritage. Marek is really nice as well.
Marek was the kind of name that I’d float before we found out Clio was a girl. But it reads like a nickname to my husband, so it never stuck.
Oooh, I like Marcel! He’s got a nice continental vibe. Marc/Marc is a family name for me and makes me think Marcel might work for us. Goes well with the surname too. Maybe. I’ll have to see what sort of reaction he gets. But he’s pretty snazzy!