Marlynn
A feminine name, possibly a blend of Marie and Lynn, with Marie derived from the Hebrew name Miriam.
Name Census estimates that about 665 living Americans carry the first name Marlynn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marlynn today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marlynn births was 1955 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marlynn. 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
665
~ 1 in 515,420 Americans
Peak year
1955
25 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,582
Tracked since 1922
Census
Marlynn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 820 people with the first name Marlynn, which placed it at #14,393 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
#14,393
National first-name rank
People counted
820
820 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marlynn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marlynn is White at 54.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.2%) and Black (14.6%). 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 Marlynn 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 Marlynn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.8% · 449
- Hispanic or Latino18.2% · 149
- Black or African American14.6% · 120
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.9% · 73
- Two or more races2.9% · 24
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
Popularity
Marlynn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marlynn from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 153 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marlynn 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 Marlynn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marlynns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Marlynn, while Pennsylvania, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marlynn
The name Marlynn is a relatively modern invention, likely originating in the early 20th century as a combination of the more traditional names Marilyn and Lynn. Its roots can be traced back to the ancient Hebrew name Miriam, which means "bitter" or "beloved".
The name Miriam was borne by the sister of Moses in the Bible, and it has been a popular name among Jews and Christians for centuries. The French form of the name, Marie, became widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages, giving rise to a variety of spellings and diminutives such as Mary, Marilyn, and Marlene.
The first recorded use of the name Marlynn dates back to the early 1900s in the United States, where it was likely formed as a creative combination of Marilyn and Lynn. One of the earliest notable bearers of the name was Marlynn Anker, an American actress born in 1923, who appeared in several films in the 1940s and 1950s.
Another notable figure with the name Marlynn was Marlynn Sawyer, an American writer and journalist born in 1936. She published several books, including biographies of famous figures such as Marilyn Monroe and Katharine Hepburn.
In the realm of sports, Marlynn Jones was a professional baseball player who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II. She was born in 1923 and played for the Rockford Peaches from 1944 to 1948.
Marlynn Bunzl was an Austrian-born American artist and sculptor, known for her abstract expressionist works. She was born in 1918 and had a prolific career spanning several decades until her death in 2008.
Finally, Marlynn Hawthorne was a Canadian writer and poet, born in 1940. She published several collections of poetry and was awarded the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry in 1991.
While the name Marlynn is not as common as some of its component names like Marilyn or Lynn, it has been borne by a diverse array of notable individuals throughout the 20th century, primarily in the fields of entertainment, literature, and the arts.
People
Marlynn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marlynn 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
Marlynn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marlynn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 665 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marlynn 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 515,420 US residents.
Is Marlynn a common name?
We classify Marlynn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 952 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marlynn most popular?
The single biggest year for Marlynn was 1955, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marlynn is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marlynn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 820 people with the name Marlynn, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,393 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 Marlynn 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 Marlynn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marlynn leans strongly female. 791 people counted with this name were female (95.9%), compared with 34 male bearers (4.1%). 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 Marlynn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marlynn is White at 54.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.2%) and Black (14.6%). 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 Marlynn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marlynn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.8% (449 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 Marlynn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marlynn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marlynn 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 Marlynn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marlynn 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 Marlynn 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 Marlynn?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Marlynn at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.