Marilynn
A feminine name deriving from the names Mary and Lynn, meaning "bitter sea" or "sea of sorrow".
Name Census estimates that about 6,500 living Americans carry the first name Marilynn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marilynn today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marilynn births was 1947 (407 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marilynn. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
6.5K
~ 1 in 52,731 Americans
Peak year
1947
407 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,303
Tracked since 1914
Census
Marilynn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,933 people with the first name Marilynn, which placed it at #2,647 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#2,647
National first-name rank
People counted
8.9K
8,933 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marilynn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marilynn is White at 79.0%. The next largest groups are Black (8.6%) and Hispanic (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Marilynn described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Marilynn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.0% · 7,056
- Black or African American8.6% · 767
- Hispanic or Latino8.2% · 734
- Two or more races2.0% · 182
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 126
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 68
Popularity
Marilynn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marilynn from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 3,569 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marilynn by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Marilynn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marilynns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. California, Illinois, Michigan recorded the most babies named Marilynn, while Hawaii, Arizona, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 230 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marilynn
The name Marilynn is a modern English variant of the name Marilyn, which itself is a combination of the names Mary and Lynn. The name Mary has its roots in the ancient Hebrew name Miriam, which is derived from the Hebrew word for "bitter" or "beloved". The name Lynn, on the other hand, has its origins in the Celtic word "linn", meaning "lake" or "pool".
The name Marilyn first appeared in the Middle Ages, but it did not gain widespread popularity until the 20th century. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Marilynn can be found in the records of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, where a woman named Marilynn Gedney was accused of witchcraft.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Marilynn. One of the most famous was Marilynn Monroe (1926-1962), the iconic American actress, model, and singer who became a major sex symbol in the 1950s and 1960s. Another well-known Marilynn was Marilynn Quayle (1921-2021), the wife of former Vice President Dan Quayle and a prominent advocate for breast cancer awareness.
In the realm of literature, Marilynn Hacker (born 1942) is an American poet and academic who has received numerous accolades, including the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and the National Book Award. Marilynn Robinson (born 1943) is an acclaimed American novelist and essayist, best known for her novels "Housekeeping" and "Gilead", which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005.
In the world of sports, Marilynn Smith (1928-2019) was an American professional golfer who won 21 tournaments on the LPGA Tour and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2021.
While the name Marilynn has its roots in ancient languages and cultures, it has evolved and gained popularity in modern times, gracing the lives of many remarkable individuals across various fields.
People
Marilynn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marilynn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Marilynn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marilynn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,500 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marilynn going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 52,731 US residents.
Is Marilynn a common name?
We classify Marilynn as "Rare". It ranks above 97.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 13,240 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marilynn most popular?
The single biggest year for Marilynn was 1947, when 407 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marilynn is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marilynn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,933 people with the name Marilynn, or 2.96 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,647 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Marilynn in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Marilynn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marilynn appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,929 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Marilynn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marilynn is White at 79.0%. The next largest groups are Black (8.6%) and Hispanic (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Marilynn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marilynn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.0% (7,056 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Marilynn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marilynn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marilynn in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Marilynn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marilynn in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Marilynn can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Marilynn?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.