Marilyn
Feminine · “Mary with a fashionable ending”
Marilyn is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 373,791 girls against 1,066 boys since 1880. See Marilyn as a boy name
Marilyn is an American invention of about 1900 that reached its height in the 1930s — which is to say, well before the woman most people think of when they hear it. Norma Jeane was given the name by a studio, and the studio took it from a Broadway star of the 1920s. The name made her; she did not make the name.
How old is the name Marilyn?
Marilyn first appears in US birth records in 1899 — 126 years ago. The typical Marilyn alive today was born around 1946, making them about 79 years old. About 214,000 people named Marilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marilyn most popular?
Marilyn peaked in 1936, reaching #13 nationally. Today it ranks #760, 747 places below that high. See the whole 1936 chart.
Marilyn appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Mary, the commonest women's name in Europe for a thousand years to Marilyn
The story of Marilyn
The studio executive who renamed her chose Marilyn because she reminded him of a musical comedy star of the previous generation; the surname came from her mother's family. She disliked the first name and said so more than once. What is easy to miss is the timing: the name was already near the top of the American charts when she was a child, and it was named after somebody else long before it was named after her. By the time she was famous the wave had passed, and the name has been falling, gently, ever since — which means it now belongs to women of her mother's generation rather than to her.
Meaning
Mary with a fashionable ending
The front is Mary, whose own meaning has been argued over for two thousand years and remains unsettled. The ending is the one that produced Carolyn, Evelyn and a dozen others in American use around the turn of the last century. Marilyn is one of the earliest of that set and by some distance the most successful, and it is a genuine American coinage rather than an import — which makes it one of the very few names of that kind to have gone worldwide.
How the name formed
- Mary, the commonest women's name in Europe for a thousand years
- an American ending produces a set of new compounds
- Marilyn appears in the record around 1900
- peaks in the middle 1930s
- a film star carries it worldwide a generation later
Related forms: Marilynn · Maralyn · Marilyne
Pronouncing Marilyn
MARR-uh-lin
Three syllables with the stress at the front and a middle vowel that all but disappears — which is why the record carries it spelled with an i, an a and an e in that position.
Nicknames for Marilyn
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
- 1899
- Most girls named
- 193611,064 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #13reached in 1936
- Change vs 2022
- −15.8%356 in 2025, from 423
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.
Marilyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marilynn in English — spelling variant
- Maralyn in English — spelling variant
- Marilyne in French — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Marilyns among us
people named Marilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,515 born in 2025 was named Marilyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Marilyn
- #760
- Marilyn on the 2025 chart
- #566
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Marilyn went to 356 girls in 2025, but Marilynn, Marylynn and Marylin and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 431, which makes it the 566th most-given girls’ name of the year — 194 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,729 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,515 for Marilyn itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rose test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marilyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rose climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rose's path sketches the road Marilyn is walking now.
Marilyn 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 Marilyn is headed
Marilyn should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Marilyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marilyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is one of the few American coinages to become internationally recognized.
- Mari and Lyn are both available and both work as names on their own.
- The sound is soft and unfussy, and it has never been difficult for anybody to say.
- One film star owns the name in the public mind, and that is unlikely to change in this century.
- It is closely dated to the middle of the last century and reads as a grandmother's name.
- Marilynn and Maralyn are both in the record and the middle vowel will be corrected.
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What they receive
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Marilyn
Feminine · #760 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marilyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 214,000 people named Marilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Marilyn?
- Marilyn is the most-used spelling in US records — 356 of the 431 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Marilynn, Marylynn, Marylin and Marylyn.
- How popular is the name Marilyn in 2025?
- Marilyn ranks #760 among US girl names in 2025, with 356 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marilyn?
- About 1 in every 4,515 US girls born in 2025 was named Marilyn — 356 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marilyn with classmates?
- Marilyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marilyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Charley#760 · Xyla#760 · Neriah#760 · Kenna#759 · Soleil#756 · Kaeli#756 · Elina#764 · Lettie#756
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marilyn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marilyn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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