Molli
Feminine · “Hebrew Miryam”
Molly Pitcher probably never existed as one person. The woman who carried water to the guns at Monmouth in 1778 and took her husband's place at the cannon is a composite of several documented women and a great deal of retelling.
How old is the name Molli?
Molli first appears in US birth records in 1950 — 75 years ago. The typical Molli alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 1,900 people named Molli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Molli most popular?
Molli peaked in 1992, reaching #2318 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 7,789 places below that high. See the whole 1992 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Miryam to Molli
The story of Molli
The Molly Pitcher story is one of the best known in American folklore and one of the least documented. Contemporary accounts describe women carrying water to artillery crews at Monmouth in the heat of June 1778, and at least two real women, Mary Ludwig Hays and Margaret Corbin, did take their husbands' places at guns in that war and were later granted pensions. The single figure with the single name appears in print decades afterwards and grows with each telling. That is a common pattern for folk heroes: the name arrives first as a generic, in this case Molly, one of the commonest women's names of the period, and a real event is then attached to it. What the story preserves accurately is that women served with the artillery.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew Miryam, meaning unknown
Molly is a traditional English familiar form of Mary, by way of Mally, with the r replaced by an l as in Sarah and Sally. Mary's own meaning, from Hebrew Miryam, is genuinely unsettled. The -i spelling is an American variant of the 1970s and 1980s; its peak is 1992.
How the name formed
- Miryam
- Mary
- Molly
- Molli
Related forms: Molly · Mollie
Pronouncing Molli
MOL-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Molly, Mollie and Molli are homophones; the -i ending is the newest of the three.
Nicknames for Molli
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
- 1950
- Most girls named
- 201463 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2318reached in 1992
- Change vs 2024
- −40.0%9 in 2025, from 15
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.
Molli in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Molly in English — spelling variant
- Mollie in English — spelling variant
Mollis among us
people named Molli are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Molli
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Molli
- #10107
- Molli on the 2025 chart
- #204
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Molli went to 9 girls in 2025, but Molly is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 1,610, which makes it the 204th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,903 places above the chart.
- Molly1,601
- Molli9
About 1 girl in 998 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 178,585 for Molli 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 Suzzette test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Molli's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Suzzette climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Suzzette's path sketches the road Molli is walking now.
Molli 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
Molli beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Molli in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Mary is available as the formal version.
- Two syllables and five letters, nothing silent.
- It reads as warm and unfussy in any setting.
- Molly is the standard spelling by a wide margin.
- The -i ending dates this form to the 1980s and 1990s.
- It reads as a diminutive rather than a formal name.
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Molli
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mollis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Molli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Molli?
- Molli is one of 2 recorded spellings. Molly is the more common one — 1,601 births in 2025 against 9 for Molli.
- How popular is the name Molli in 2025?
- Molli ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Molli?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Molli — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Molli with classmates?
- Molli will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Molli
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Molli? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Molli and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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