Molly
A feminine name derived from the Old Hebrew name Mary, meaning "sea of bitterness" or "beloved lady".
Name Census estimates that about 154,836 living Americans carry the first name Molly. It sits at #208 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Molly today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Molly births was 1991 (4,663 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Molly. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Molly with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Molly is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 360 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
155K
~ 1 in 2,214 Americans
Peak year
1991
4,663 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2014 SSA rank
#208
Tracked since 1880
Census
Molly in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 153,459 people with the first name Molly, which placed it at #363 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
#363
National first-name rank
People counted
153K
153,459 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
50.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Molly
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Molly is White at 90.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.2%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Molly 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 Molly at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.9% · 139,560
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 4,961
- Two or more races2.5% · 3,765
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 3,145
- Black or African American0.9% · 1,393
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 635
Gender
Gender distribution for Molly
Out of the 174,877 babies given the name Molly since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Molly as a male name
- Ranked #13,398 in 2014
- 5 male births in 2014
- Peak: 1989 (33 births)
Molly as a female name
- Ranked #208 in 2024
- 1,465 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1991 (4,652 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Molly appears almost entirely female. Of the 153,463 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Molly: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Molly from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 36,629 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Molly 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 Molly during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mollys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Ohio, New York recorded the most babies named Molly, while Hawaii, Wyoming, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,334 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Molly
The name Molly is a diminutive form of the name Mary, which is derived from the ancient Hebrew name Miryam. The name Miryam is thought to be a combination of the Hebrew words "mar" meaning bitter, and "yam" meaning sea, possibly referring to the bitter trials endured by the biblical Miriam.
Molly emerged as a pet form of Mary in the Middle Ages, first appearing in written records in England during the 16th century. It was likely influenced by the Middle English word "molle," meaning "small thing."
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Molly was Molly Pitcher, an American revolutionary war heroine born in 1754. She is famous for her actions at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778, where she carried pitchers of water to the soldiers and even took over firing a cannon after her husband was wounded.
Another notable Molly was Molly Malone, the subject of a popular Irish song from the late 17th century. She was a fictional figure, a fishwife who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin.
In the 19th century, Molly Bloom was the central character in James Joyce's celebrated novel "Ulysses," published in 1922. Her famous soliloquy at the end of the book is considered a landmark in modern literature.
Molly Pitcher was an American Revolutionary War heroine, born in 1754. She is famous for her actions at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778, where she carried pitchers of water to the soldiers and even took over firing a cannon after her husband was wounded.
Molly Brown, born Margaret Tobin in 1867, was an American philanthropist and activist who became known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" for her actions during the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. She helped to load and launch the lifeboats, and later worked to raise funds for survivors.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Molly
People
Molly + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Molly 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
Molly: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Molly?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 154,836 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Molly 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 2,214 US residents.
Is Molly a common name?
We classify Molly as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 174,877 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Molly most popular?
The single biggest year for Molly was 1991, when 4,663 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Molly is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Molly in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 153,459 people with the name Molly, or 50.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #363 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 Molly 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 Molly?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Molly appears almost entirely female. Of the 153,463 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 Molly?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Molly is White at 90.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.2%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Molly most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Molly in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.9% (139,560 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 Molly in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Molly a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Molly 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 Molly still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Molly 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 Molly 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 share the name Molly?
Want to know how many Americans are named Molly? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.