Marigold
Feminine · Old English roots · “Mary's gold”
Marigold is one of the few names that is also a garden you can smell. English speakers have called the flower "Mary gold" since the Middle Ages, and the word arrived as a given name during the Victorian and Edwardian enthusiasm for flower names, alongside Rose, Violet and Daisy. It is three plain syllables that no one has to ask you to spell, ending on that bright hard consonant most flower names lack.
How old is the name Marigold?
Marigold first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Marigold is a kid of about 3 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,900 people named Marigold are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marigold most popular?
Marigold peaked in 2025, reaching #590 nationally. Today it ranks #590, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From golde (Old English name for the flower) to Marigold
The story of Marigold
The flower name came first: golde in Old English, lengthened to "Mary gold" by medieval English speakers who dedicated the bright calendula to the Virgin Mary. It became a name for daughters in the flower-name wave of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and L. M. Montgomery gave it to the heroine of her 1929 novel Magic for Marigold. The plant itself carries meaning well beyond English: cempasúchil marigolds cover the ofrendas of Día de Muertos in Mexico, and garlands of them mark weddings and temple offerings across India. The name has stayed rare in American records the whole time, with a distinct upturn in very recent years.
Meaning
Mary's gold — the golden flower associated with the Virgin Mary
The plant was called simply golde in Old English; Mary was added in medieval England, dedicating the flower to the Virgin. As a given name, the reading people use is the flower itself.
How the name formed
- goldeOld English name for the flower
- Mary goldmedieval English
- Marigold
Related forms: Marygold
Pronouncing Marigold
MAR-ih-gold
Stress on the first syllable. Some speakers say MARE-ih-gold; both are ordinary and neither needs correcting.
Nicknames for Marigold
High
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
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 2025498 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #590reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +21.2%498 in 2025, from 411
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.
Marigold in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marygold in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Washington.
Marigolds among us
people named Marigold are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,227 born in 2025 was named Marigold
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 Richelle test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marigold's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Richelle climbed just as high around 1969, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Richelle's path sketches the road Marigold is walking now.
Marigold is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Marigold is headed
Marigold looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 34% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Marigold beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marigold in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone already knows the spelling, because everyone knows the flower — no repeating letters over the phone.
- Two ready-made short forms in real use, Mari and Goldie, which sit at opposite ends of formality.
- Documented in English since the Middle Ages as a word, and in use as a given name since the flower-name era.
- Currently rare enough in American records that a Marigold is likely to be the only one in her school.
- It is a word before it is a name, so it will draw garden comments, jokes about marigolds in the border, and the occasional "like the flower" all her life. Word-names come with that attached.
- Three syllables and eight letters is a lot of name to write on a worksheet in kindergarten. The short forms will do real work in those years.
- Its American wave is very recent, so nearly everyone carrying it right now is a child. That means few adult namesakes to point to — and also that it does not sound borrowed from any particular decade.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Marigold to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Marigold? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Marigold
Feminine · Old English roots · #590 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marigolds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Marigold are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marigold in 2025?
- Marigold ranks #590 among US girl names in 2025, with 498 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marigold?
- About 1 in every 3,227 US girls born in 2025 was named Marigold — 498 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marigold with classmates?
- Marigold will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marigold
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Meilani#590 · Paris#592 · Mara#587 · Makenna#593 · Alia#587 · Chaya#587 · Jennifer#586 · Reyna#594
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marigold? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marigold and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle