Marilyn Girl
How popular is Marilyn?
#760 girl name in 2025
356 baby girls were named Marilyn in the US in 2025, making it the 760th most popular girl name.
Marilyn popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #760 for girls (▼ 95 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 356 girls |
| 10-year trend | Falling fast (-52% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #426 in 2015, #634 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1947 (11,881 girls) |
| Highest rank | #13 in 1936 (2 years at that rank) |
| First recorded | 1899 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 0% boys, 100% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.3% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Marilyn counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Marilyn family of names ranked #429 for girls in 2025 (#413 the year before), with 698 babies in all.
| Spelling | Girls in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Marilyn | 356 | 51% |
| Marlene | 177 | 25% |
| Marilynn | 41 | 6% |
| Marlen | 42 | 6% |
| Marlyn | 22 | 3% |
| Marelyn | 19 | 3% |
| Marylin | 11 | 2% |
| Marylynn | 16 | 2% |
| Marlynn | 7 | 1% |
| Marylyn | 7 | 1% |
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Marilyn is most popular
Babies named Marilyn per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- Nevada: 0.5 per 1,000 (23 girls)
- Louisiana: 0.4 per 1,000 (36 girls)
- Indiana: 0.4 per 1,000 (54 girls)
- Ohio: 0.4 per 1,000 (90 girls)
- California: 0.4 per 1,000 (301 girls)
Marilyn by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1890s | 5 | #1,595 |
| 1900s | 132 | #742 |
| 1910s | 1,306 | #313 |
| 1920s | 34,202 | #33 |
| 1930s | 98,531 | #13 |
| 1940s | 98,977 | #25 |
| 1950s | 80,161 | #35 |
| 1960s | 27,002 | #117 |
| 1970s | 7,930 | #239 |
| 1980s | 5,578 | #368 |
| 1990s | 5,750 | #378 |
| 2000s | 5,376 | #496 |
| 2010s | 6,382 | #373 |
| 2020s | 2,459 | #634 |
Girl names about as popular as Marilyn
Questions
- Is Marilyn a boy or girl name?
- Marilyn is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Marilyn were girls.
- How popular is the name Marilyn?
- 356 baby girls were named Marilyn in the US in 2025, making it the 760th most popular girl name.
- When was Marilyn most popular?
- Marilyn peaked in 1947, when 11,881 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #13, held for 2 years starting in 1936.
- How many people are named Marilyn?
- 374,857 babies have been named Marilyn in the US since 1880. We estimate about 211,006 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 74.
- Where is Marilyn most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Marilyn was most common in Nevada, at 0.5 of every 1,000 girls born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.