Marlin
Feminine
Marlin is given to both — 1,662 girls and 21,172 boys since 1880. See Marlin as a boy nameSee other names given to both
The fish is named after a tool. A marlinspike is the pointed iron a sailor uses to separate rope strands, and the billfish was called a marlin because its bill looked like one — so the name of a large ocean predator comes from a piece of rigging equipment.
How old is the name Marlin?
Marlin first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Marlin alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 1,500 people named Marlin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marlin most popular?
Marlin peaked in 1941, reaching #1954 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 5,537 places below that high. See the whole 1941 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Marlene to Marlin
The story of Marlin
The rope sense is the oldest and explains the rest. Marline is a two-stranded cord used for binding, from Dutch marren, to tie; the marlinspike is the tool for working it, attested in English from the seventeenth century; and the fish takes its name from the resemblance of its bill to that spike, first recorded in the nineteenth. The name Marlin as a woman's name has nothing to do with any of it and belongs to the 1930s and 1940s vogue for Mar- names, peaking in 1941 in the same window as Marlene, Marilyn and Marleen. Both facts are worth keeping separate, because the fish is what most Americans will think of first.
Meaningscholars disagree
Most likely a respelling of Marlene or Marilyn
The female Marlin in American records is generally a spelling of Marlene, itself a German contraction of Maria and Magdalene, or of Marilyn, from Mary plus the -lyn suffix. Separately, marlin is an English word for a billfish, from marline, a light rope, from Dutch marlijn, from marren, to bind — hence marlinspike. Marlin is also an English surname from Merlin. The three are unrelated.
How the name formed
- Marlene
- Marlin
Related forms: Marlene · Marlyn
Pronouncing Marlin
MAR-lin
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the second reduced. Marlene is mar-LAY-nuh or mar-LEEN depending on whether the German or English form is meant; Marlin keeps neither.
Nicknames for Marlin
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
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 200136 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1954reached in 1941
- Change vs 2023
- −22.2%14 in 2025, from 18
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.
Marlin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marlene in English — related form
- Marlyn in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Marlins among us
people named Marlin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Marlin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Marlin
- #7491
- Marlin on the 2025 chart
- #917
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Marlin went to 14 girls in 2025, but Marlyn and Marlynn are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 43, which makes it the 917th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,574 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 37,378 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 114,805 for Marlin 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 Lyna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marlin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lyna climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lyna's path sketches the road Marlin is walking now.
Marlin 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
Marlin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marlin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, phonetic and impossible to mispronounce.
- Mar and Lin are ready short forms that stand alone.
- It works for either sex, though it now reads mainly as male.
- It is the name of a large fish, which most Americans will think of first.
- It reads as masculine in current American use.
- The 1940s peak dates a female bearer strongly.
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What they receive
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Marlin
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marlins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Marlin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Marlin?
- Marlin is one of 3 recorded spellings. Marlyn is the more common one — 22 births in 2025 against 14 for Marlin.
- How popular is the name Marlin in 2025?
- Marlin ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marlin?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Marlin — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marlin with classmates?
- Marlin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marlin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marlin? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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