Marilyn
Masculine · “Mary with a fashionable ending”
Marilyn is given to girls far more often — 373,791 girls against 1,066 boys since 1880. See Marilyn as a girl 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 1922 — 103 years ago. The typical Marilyn alive today was born around 1943, making them about 82 years old. About 500 people named Marilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marilyn most popular?
Marilyn peaked in 1937, reaching #932 nationally. See the whole 1937 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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
- 1922
- Most boys named
- 194041 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #932reached in 1937
- Change vs 1995
- +20.0%6 in 1997, from 5
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
Marilyns among us
people named Marilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Marilyn sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
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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Marilyn
Masculine
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 500 people named Marilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marilyn in 2025?
- Marilyn is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Marilyn with classmates?
- Marilyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
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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