Mally
A diminutive form of Mary, derived from the Hebrew name Miriam.
Name Census estimates that about 164 living Americans carry the first name Mally. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mally today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mally births was 2014 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mally. 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 Mally with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
164
~ 1 in 2,089,965 Americans
Peak year
2014
15 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,735
Tracked since 1986
Census
Mally in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 350 people with the first name Mally, which placed it at #26,543 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
#26,543
National first-name rank
People counted
350
350 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mally
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mally is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.6%). 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 Mally 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 Mally at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.4% · 194
- Hispanic or Latino21.1% · 74
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.6% · 37
- Black or African American8.6% · 30
- Two or more races3.4% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3
Popularity
Mally: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mally from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 62 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mally remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mally 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 Mally 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 Mally
The name Mally is a diminutive form of the feminine name Molly, which is itself a pet form of the name Mary. Mary is derived from the ancient Hebrew name Miryam, which likely comes from the Hebrew root words meaning "bitter" or "beloved". The name Mally can be traced back to the Middle Ages in Europe, particularly in England and Scotland.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Mally can be found in the 14th century English poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". In this work, a character named Mally is mentioned as a servant girl. This suggests that the name was in use among the common folk during that time period.
In the 16th century, the name Mally gained some prominence with the English writer and poet Mally Baunfield (c. 1560-1616), who is known for her works on religion and morality. Another notable bearer of the name was Mally Bacon (1598-1675), an English writer and philosopher who contributed to the field of natural philosophy.
During the 17th century, the name Mally appears in various historical records, including court documents and parish registers. One notable figure from this era was Mally Wilkins (1632-1707), an English writer and critic who was a member of the Royal Society.
In the 18th century, the name Mally was relatively uncommon, but it did see some use among the upper classes. One example is Mally Montagu (1689-1762), an English writer and feminist who is known for her work on women's education and her advocacy for smallpox inoculation.
Moving into the 19th century, the name Mally remained relatively rare, but there were a few notable individuals who bore this name. One such person was Mally Shelley (1797-1851), an English novelist and biographer who was the wife of the famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
People
Mally + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mally 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
Mally: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mally?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 164 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mally 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 2,089,965 US residents.
Is Mally a common name?
We classify Mally as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 167 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mally most popular?
The single biggest year for Mally was 2014, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mally is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mally in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 350 people with the name Mally, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,543 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 Mally 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 Mally?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mally leans strongly female. 317 people counted with this name were female (90.8%), compared with 32 male bearers (9.2%). 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 Mally?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mally is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.6%). 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 Mally most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mally in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.4% (194 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 Mally in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mally a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mally 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 Mally still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mally 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 Mally 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 Mally?
Want to know how many Americans are named Mally? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.