Marlis
Feminine · “Maria joined to Elisabeth”
Marlis is a German blend rather than a compound: two names run into each other and cut down, which is how German builds double names and it is not how English does it.
How old is the name Marlis?
Marlis first appears in US birth records in 1919 — 106 years ago. The typical Marlis alive today was born around 1944, making them about 81 years old. About 500 people named Marlis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marlis most popular?
Marlis peaked in 1938, reaching #1288 nationally. See the whole 1938 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Maria to Marlis
The story of Marlis
English joins double names end to end and keeps both visible: Mary Anne, Sarah Jane, Jo Ellen. German blends them, which is a different operation — take a piece of the first and a piece of the second and fuse them into something that is neither and cannot be taken apart by anyone who does not already know. Marlis, Marlene, Annegret, Rosemarie, Karlheinz. The result looks like a single name and honors two people, and the family knows which two. It is an elegant solution to a problem English solves by simply writing both names down and hoping the middle one gets used.
Meaning
Maria joined to Elisabeth
The name blends Maria and Elisabeth, taking the front of one and the back of the other. Both halves have their own long histories and neither meaning survives the blending in any useful way — what survives is the fact of the two names.
How the name formed
- Maria
- Elisabeth
- Marlis
Related forms: Marlies
Pronouncing Marlis
MAR-liss
Two syllables, stress at the front. German says it the same way with a slightly longer i.
Nicknames for Marlis
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
- 1919
- Most girls named
- 194133 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1288reached in 1938
- Change vs 1988
- −28.6%5 in 2001, from 7
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.
Marlis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marlies in German — same name
Marliss among us
people named Marlis 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
Marlis 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 short, firm and read correctly on sight.
- It honors two names at once without looking like a compound.
- It is genuinely rare in American use.
- Marlies is the German spelling and hers may be written that way.
- It will be heard as Marlys, Marliss or Marlene.
- The two names inside it are invisible to anybody who does not know the pattern.
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Marlis
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Marliss 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 Marlis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marlis in 2025?
- Marlis is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Marlis with classmates?
- Marlis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marlis? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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