Hollie
Feminine · “the holly tree”
Hollie is given to both — 18,453 girls and 1,453 boys since 1880. See Hollie as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Hollie is the British spelling and Holly the American one, and the split is unusually clean. British registers show the -ie form in large numbers and American ones show the -y form, with each country treating the other's as a variant. It is one of the few names where a spelling preference divides so neatly along a national line.
How old is the name Hollie?
Hollie first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Hollie alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 17,000 people named Hollie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hollie most popular?
Hollie peaked in 1983, reaching #347 nationally. Today it ranks #2822, 2,475 places below that high. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From An Old English word for the evergreen shrub to Hollie
The story of Hollie
The plant comes in pairs in the tradition. Holly and ivy are set against each other in a whole family of medieval English carols, in which they argue about which should have the mastery in the hall, and the argument is always gendered: holly is the man, ivy is the woman, and the songs are by turns affectionate, competitive and rude. One of the oldest surviving English carols is exactly that debate. The pairing survives in the modern carol that names them both in its first line, where the competition has been smoothed away entirely and only the two plants remain. It is a small example of how much a tradition can lose while keeping its furniture.
Meaning
the holly tree
The English word for the evergreen shrub, used directly as a name from the nineteenth century onwards, and the reading is not in dispute. The -ie ending is an affectionate English spelling with no separate sense. The resemblance to the word holy is a coincidence: the two have different roots and different vowels historically.
How the name formed
- An Old English word for the evergreen shrub
- Paired with ivy in medieval English carols
- Taken as a personal name in the nineteenth century
- The -ie spelling settling in Britain and the -y in America
Pronouncing Hollie
HOL-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first, identical to the y spelling. The word holy has a long o and is a different word entirely, though the two are confused in writing constantly.
Nicknames for Hollie
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1886
- Most girls named
- 1977620 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #347reached in 1983
- Change vs 2022
- −16.7%60 in 2025, from 72
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Hollie in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Hollies among us
people named Hollie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 26,788 born in 2025 was named Hollie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ilene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hollie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ilene climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ilene's path sketches the road Hollie is walking now.
Hollie sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Hollie is headed
Hollie should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Hollie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hollie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Nobody will mispronounce it and the meaning needs no explaining.
- It works on the register for either child, which the record confirms.
- The spelling is standard somewhere in the world, which most respellings are not.
- In America it will be corrected to the y spelling constantly.
- It is strongly seasonal, and a child born in July will hear about it.
- It is closely tied to a stretch of the nineteen eighties in both countries.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Hollie
Feminine · #2822 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hollies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 17,000 people named Hollie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hollie in 2025?
- Hollie ranks #2822 among US girl names in 2025, with 60 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hollie?
- About 1 in every 26,788 US girls born in 2025 was named Hollie — 60 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hollie with classmates?
- Hollie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hollie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lya#2822 · Roxanna#2822 · Kensington#2822 · Maybelle#2822 · Hayat#2822 · Seven#2822 · Livie#2822 · Haniya#2822
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hollie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hollie and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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