Marilla
Feminine
Marilla Cuthbert is the severe, decent woman at the center of Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. But the American peak for the name is 1882, a generation earlier. The novel did not create it. Lucy Maud Montgomery reached for a name that already sounded old-fashioned to her readers, which is what novelists do when they want a character to seem to belong to a past age.
How old is the name Marilla?
Marilla was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Marilla alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 400 people named Marilla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marilla most popular?
Marilla peaked in 1882, reaching #740 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 7,145 places below that high. See the whole 1882 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mary to Marilla
The story of Marilla
Names in fiction are almost always chosen to date a character, not to invent a fashion, and this makes novels a useful mirror of naming rather than an engine of it. Montgomery's book is set in the 1870s and 80s, and Marilla is meant to be about sixty. A reader in 1908 would have recognized the name as belonging to their grandmother's generation, which is precisely the effect intended. The American data confirms the choice was accurate: the name is at its height in 1882 and already falling by 1900. Occasionally a novel does create a fashion, and when it does the curve jumps in the year of publication. Here it does not. What the book did instead was keep the name legible for a century after it stopped being given.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Marilla has no single agreed derivation. It has been explained as an elaboration of Mary with the Latin diminutive -illa, as a variant of Amaryllis, and as a form of the Germanic Amalric family. All three are plausible and none is documented. The name appears in English parish records from the seventeenth century onward and was in common American use through the nineteenth century, which is more than can be said for most names of its shape.
How the name formed
- Mary
- Marilla
Related forms: Marella · Marilla
Pronouncing Marilla
muh-RIL-ah
Three syllables, stress on the second, with a short i. MAR-ih-lah, with the stress at the front, is also heard and is closer to the way the name is usually read aloud from the page.
Nicknames for Marilla
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 192417 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #740reached in 1882
- Change vs 2023
- +30.0%13 in 2025, from 10
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.
Marilla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marella in English — spelling variant
- Marilla in Italian — related form
Marillas among us
people named Marilla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Marilla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Marilla 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
Marilla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marilla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a genuine nineteenth-century American history rather than a modern one.
- Rilla and Mari are two very different short forms.
- It is familiar from a book almost everyone has met without being common.
- The literary association is strong and specific.
- No settled meaning can be given.
- Marella and Mariella are close enough to be confused with it.
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What they receive
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Marilla
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marillas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Marilla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marilla in 2025?
- Marilla ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marilla?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Marilla — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marilla with classmates?
- Marilla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marilla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marilla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marilla and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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