Marylynn
Feminine
Marylynn peaked in 1943, and its date is written into it. Lynn was the fashionable new element of the early 1940s and Mary was still the most-used girls' name in the country; joining them produced a name that was half the oldest thing available and half the newest. That is a very common shape for names that peak during a war.
How old is the name Marylynn?
Marylynn first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Marylynn alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 1,800 people named Marylynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marylynn most popular?
Marylynn peaked in 1943, reaching #1291 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 5,547 places below that high. See the whole 1943 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Miryam to Marylynn
The story of Marylynn
Lynn arrived in American girls' naming in the 1930s from the surname, boosted by actresses, and became one of the most-used middle names of the century. Mary was still first among first names. Fusing a first and a middle name into one word was standard practice in that generation — Maryann, Marylou, Maryjane, Marybeth, Marylynn — and the SSA records the fused spelling as a distinct name whenever the paperwork closed the gap. The 1943 peak places Marylynn among the war-year compounds, which fell away almost completely by 1960.
Meaningscholars disagree
Mary plus Lynn: a disputed Hebrew name plus a Welsh word for lake
Mary is Greek Maria from Hebrew Miryam, whose meaning is genuinely unresolved — "bitter", "beloved" and an Egyptian root for "beloved" all have support. Lynn comes from a Welsh and English surname connected to llyn, "lake", though by the 1940s it functioned purely as a sound. The compound means nothing beyond its halves.
How the name formed
- Miryam
- Maria
- Mary
- Mary Lynn
- Marylynn
Pronouncing Marylynn
MAIR-ee-lin
Three syllables with the main stress on the first and a secondary stress on the last. It should not collapse into Marilyn, which has the stress pattern MAIR-uh-lin and a different middle vowel — but in fast speech the two are nearly indistinguishable.
Nicknames for Marylynn
High
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
- 1920
- Most girls named
- 196065 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1291reached in 1943
- Change vs 2023
- +14.3%16 in 2025, from 14
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.
Marylynns among us
people named Marylynn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Marylynn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Marylynn
- #6838
- Marylynn on the 2025 chart
- #566
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Marylynn went to 16 girls in 2025, but Marilyn, Marilynn 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 — 6,272 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,729 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,454 for Marylynn 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 Lorette test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marylynn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lorette climbed just as high around 1909, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lorette's path sketches the road Marylynn is walking now.
Marylynn 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
Marylynn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marylynn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both halves are ordinary, historic and instantly readable.
- It offers two completely different everyday names depending on which half is used.
- It has an unmistakable mid-century warmth that few modern compounds achieve.
- It is very close to Marilyn and will be written that way often.
- The 1940s peak dates it to a single generation.
- Closed compounds confuse forms that expect a first and middle name.
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Marylynn
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marylynns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Marylynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Marylynn?
- Marylynn is one of 5 recorded spellings. Marilyn is the more common one — 356 births in 2025 against 16 for Marylynn.
- How popular is the name Marylynn in 2025?
- Marylynn ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marylynn?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Marylynn — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marylynn with classmates?
- Marylynn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marylynn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marylynn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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