Molly
Feminine · “a pet form of Mary”
Molly is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 176,127 girls against 360 boys since 1880.
Molly began as a household nickname for Mary, worn smooth by centuries of English and Irish speech, and it never went back to being just a nickname. It is in the Dublin street ballad about Molly Malone and her cockles and mussels, and it is the last voice in Joyce's Ulysses. Two syllables, both open, and nothing in it to trip over.
How old is the name Molly?
Molly was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Molly alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 161,000 people named Molly are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Molly most popular?
Molly peaked in 1991, reaching #74 nationally. Today it ranks #196, 122 places below that high. See the whole 1991 chart.
Molly appears on these lists:
- Five-letter names, the comfortable middle
- Names with a double letter
- Irish names beyond St. Patrick's Day
- Wizarding world names from the Potter books
- Nursery rhyme names
- Names ending in -y
- all guides
Works in Irish families too:
Where it comes from
From Miryam to Molly
The story of Molly
Mary was so common in medieval and early modern England that speakers wore it down for everyday use: Mary became Mall, Mall became Moll, and Moll picked up the affectionate -y ending to give Molly. Daniel Defoe used the older short form for the heroine of Moll Flanders in 1722; by then Molly was already standard across England and Ireland, and it traveled with Irish emigration into American speech. The rhyming trick that turned Mary into Molly also turned Molly into Polly, which is why the two names are cousins rather than strangers. In the United States it has been on the books since record-keeping began, and it still charts in Scotland today.
Meaningscholars disagree
a pet form of Mary; the underlying Hebrew name Miryam has no agreed translation
Molly's own history is clear — it is Mary, shortened. What Mary means is the unsettled part: readings of the Hebrew Miryam include "bitter" and "rebellious" from Hebrew roots, and "beloved" from an Egyptian element. Scholars have argued over it for a very long time without landing anywhere final.
Cultural footprint
Molly Ringwald (b. 1968) — Teen queen of The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles
Molly Shannon (b. 1964) — SNL's fearless Mary Katherine Gallagher
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Miryam
- Maria
- Mary
- Moll
- Molly
Related forms: Mollie · Polly · Máire · Màiri · Marie · Maria
Pronouncing Molly
MAH-lee
Rhymes with jolly. One pronunciation everywhere in English; the only real variation is how open the first vowel sits, from MAH-lee to MAW-lee.
Nicknames for Molly
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19924,137 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #74reached in 1991
- Change vs 2022
- +8.1%1,601 in 2025, from 1,481
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.
Molly in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mollie in English — spelling variant
- Polly in English — related form
- Máire in Irish — related form
- Màiri in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Marie in French — related form
- Maria in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, New York, California. International figures from National Records of Scotland. Sources
Mollys among us
people named Molly are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,004 born in 2025 was named Molly
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rosemary test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Molly's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rosemary climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rosemary's path sketches the road Molly is walking now.
Molly peaked long ago yet still holds steady — names that survive their own wave usually settle into quiet, durable classics.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Molly is headed
Molly should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Molly beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Molly in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Already a short, affectionate form, so there is nothing to shorten — the everyday name and the legal name are the same.
- Spelled the way it sounds, and read correctly on sight by nearly every English speaker.
- A continuous record in English and Irish use going back centuries, and still on the charts in Scotland.
- Sits alongside the whole Mary family — Maria, Marie, Máire — if you want a namesake connection without repeating a name.
- In American slang since the 2010s, "molly" has been a street term for MDMA, used in songs and headlines. It has not displaced the name, but it is worth knowing that the word travels in two worlds.
- Mollie is a long-established alternative spelling, so expect an occasional need to specify which one.
- The older short form Moll picked up unflattering senses in centuries past — a gangster's girlfriend, a woman of the streets. That baggage attached to Moll, not Molly, and is largely archaic now.
- It is a diminutive by origin, with no grander long form unless you pair it with Mary on the birth certificate.
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What they receive
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Molly
Feminine · #196 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mollys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 161,000 people named Molly are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Molly in 2025?
- Molly ranks #196 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,601 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Molly?
- About 1 in every 1,004 US girls born in 2025 was named Molly — 1,601 in all.
- Will my child share the name Molly with classmates?
- Molly will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Molly
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alora#195 · Olive#197 · Everleigh#194 · Sara#198 · Kaia#193 · Peyton#199 · Reese#192 · Lia#200
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Molly? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Molly and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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