Girl · English (modern blend)
Marilyn
Say it: MAIR-ih-lin
Meaning
A 20th-century blend of Mary and the fashionable ending -lyn; Mary is from Hebrew Miryam, whose meaning is uncertain.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Rose quickly in the 1920s and was among the top American girls' names in the 1930s and 1940s.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1930s
In the United States
- 372,812 babies given this name since 1899
- At its height in 1936, about 1 in 94 girls
- 452 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Marylin, Marilynn, Merilyn
Famous bearers
- Marilyn Monroe, American actress
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- Modern use, as a recently created name
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.