Mairlyn
Anglicized feminine form of the French name Merlin, meaning from the sea eagle.
Name Census estimates that about 43 living Americans carry the first name Mairlyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mairlyn today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mairlyn births was 1955 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mairlyn. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Mairlyn is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Mairlyns were born before 1965.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Mairlyn. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
43
~ 1 in 7,971,031 Americans
Peak year
1955
10 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
1964 SSA rank
#5,806
Tracked since 1935
Popularity
Mairlyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mairlyn from the 1930s through to the 1960s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 35 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
Mairlyn 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 Mairlyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mairlyn
The name Mairlyn is a relatively modern invention, likely emerging in the late 19th or early 20th century. It does not appear to have any clear linguistic roots or origins in ancient languages or cultures. The name seems to be a combination of the more common names Mary and Lynn, with the addition of the "ir" sound in the middle.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Mairlyn was in the case of Mairlyn Stevart, an American actress born in 1914. She had a brief career in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s, appearing in a handful of films such as "The Bride Walks Out" (1936) and "The Road to Reno" (1938).
Another notable Mairlyn from the early 20th century was Mairlyn Carswell, a British tennis player born in 1920. She competed at Wimbledon several times in the late 1930s and early 1940s, reaching the quarterfinals of the women's singles in 1939.
In the mid-20th century, Mairlyn Gillespie was an American author and journalist. Born in 1927, she wrote several books on topics ranging from travel to gardening, including "The Garden in Winter" (1965) and "Travels with Mairlyn" (1970).
Mairlyn Manley was a Canadian figure skater who competed in the 1960s and 1970s. She won the Canadian national championship in 1966 and represented Canada at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France.
More recently, Mairlyn Pratt was an American artist and painter known for her vibrant abstract expressionist works. Born in 1935, she had a long career spanning several decades and held numerous solo exhibitions in galleries across the United States.
While the name Mairlyn has no known deep historical roots or connections to ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has been used by a handful of notable individuals over the past century, primarily in North America and Europe.
People
Mairlyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mairlyn 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
Mairlyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mairlyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 43 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mairlyn 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 7,971,031 US residents.
Is Mairlyn a common name?
We classify Mairlyn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 52.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 74 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mairlyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Mairlyn was 1955, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mairlyn is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Mairlyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mairlyn 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.
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.