Marylin
Feminine
Marilyn Monroe was named after Marilyn Miller. Norma Jeane Baker was given the name in 1946 by a studio executive who thought she resembled the Broadway star of the 1920s. Miller had been enormously famous and the name peaks in 1936 because of her. Within a decade the woman who borrowed it had erased her entirely.
How old is the name Marylin?
Marylin first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Marylin alive today was born around 1949, making them about 76 years old. About 2,900 people named Marylin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marylin most popular?
Marylin peaked in 1936, reaching #606 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 8,254 places below that high. See the whole 1936 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mary to Marylin
The story of Marylin
Marilyn Miller was one of the biggest Broadway stars of the 1920s, a singer and dancer who headlined the Ziegfeld Follies and several hit musicals and was among the highest-paid performers in America. Her own name was a construction: she was born Mary Ellen Reynolds and combined her first name with her mother's, Lynn. She died in 1936 at thirty-seven, which is the year the name peaks. Ten years later Ben Lyon at Twentieth Century Fox suggested the name to Norma Jeane Dougherty, saying she reminded him of Miller. The second Marilyn became one of the most photographed people of the twentieth century and the first is now remembered chiefly as a footnote to the naming. Both names were assigned rather than given, one by a performer to herself and one by a studio.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew Miriam with the Welsh element lyn
Marilyn joins Mary, from Hebrew Miriam, whose meaning is unknown, to the -lyn ending, which descends from Welsh llyn, a lake, through the name Lynn. It is an American formation of the early twentieth century. Marylin is a spelling variant using y for the first vowel. It peaks in 1936, a decade before Marilyn Monroe was given the name.
How the name formed
- Mary
- Marilyn
- Marylin
Related forms: Marilyn · Marylyn
Pronouncing Marylin
MAR-uh-lin
Three syllables, stress on the first. Both unstressed vowels are reduced, so Marilyn, Marylin and Marylyn are homophones and only the spelling separates them.
Nicknames for Marylin
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
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 1943122 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #606reached in 1936
- Change vs 2023
- +37.5%11 in 2025, from 8
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.
Marylin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marilyn in English — spelling variant
- Marylyn in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Marylins among us
people named Marylin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Marylin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Marylin
- #8860
- Marylin on the 2025 chart
- #566
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Marylin went to 11 girls in 2025, but Marilyn, Marilynn and Marylynn 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 — 8,294 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,729 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 146,115 for Marylin 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 Lera test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marylin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lera climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lera's path sketches the road Marylin is walking now.
Marylin 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
Marylin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marylin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Mary and Lyn are two complete names as short forms.
- The sound is universally familiar.
- The rhythm is even and easy to say.
- Marilyn is the standard spelling by a very wide margin.
- One extremely famous bearer dominates the association.
- The name is closely dated to the 1930s and 1940s.
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What they receive
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Marylin
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marylins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Marylin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Marylin?
- Marylin is one of 5 recorded spellings. Marilyn is the more common one — 356 births in 2025 against 11 for Marylin.
- How popular is the name Marylin in 2025?
- Marylin ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marylin?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Marylin — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marylin with classmates?
- Marylin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marylin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marylin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marylin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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