Marilla
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly from "Marie", meaning "bitter".
Name Census estimates that about 343 living Americans carry the first name Marilla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marilla today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marilla births was 2022 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marilla. 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 Marilla with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
343
~ 1 in 999,284 Americans
Peak year
2022
27 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,752
Tracked since 1880
Census
Marilla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 465 people with the first name Marilla, which placed it at #21,716 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
#21,716
National first-name rank
People counted
465
465 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marilla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marilla is White at 77.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.3%) and Black (4.3%). 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 Marilla 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 Marilla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.4% · 360
- Hispanic or Latino13.3% · 62
- Black or African American4.3% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 11
- Two or more races1.7% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 4
Popularity
Marilla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marilla from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 104 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Marilla remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marilla 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 Marilla 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 Marilla
The name Marilla has its origins in the Latin language, with its roots traced back to the ancient Roman era. It is believed to be a feminine form of the Latin name "Marillus," which itself is a diminutive of the name "Marius." The name Marius was derived from the Latin word "mas," meaning male or masculine.
In ancient Rome, the name Marilla was relatively uncommon, but it was used by a few notable individuals. One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name can be found in the writings of the Roman historian Livy, who lived from 59 BC to 17 AD. He documented a woman named Marilla who was involved in a legal dispute during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus.
During the Middle Ages, the name Marilla appeared sporadically in various European regions, particularly in areas influenced by Latin culture. One notable bearer of the name was Marilla of Alençon, a French noblewoman who lived in the 12th century and was known for her patronage of the arts and literature.
In the Renaissance period, the name gained some popularity among the Italian nobility. One of the most famous Marillas of this era was Marilla Strozzi, an Italian poet and scholar who lived from 1508 to 1571. Her poetry was widely acclaimed and celebrated during her lifetime.
As the use of the name spread across Europe, it eventually made its way to England and other parts of the British Isles. One of the earliest recorded English bearers of the name was Marilla Everett, who was born in 1685 and was the daughter of a prominent landowner in Kent.
Another notable figure in history with the name Marilla was Marilla Ricker, an American activist and pioneer in the women's suffrage movement. She was born in 1840 and played a significant role in the fight for women's right to vote in the United States.
In the literary world, the name Marilla gained recognition through the character of Marilla Cuthbert, the strict but kindhearted guardian of the orphan Anne Shirley in the beloved novel "Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Maud Montgomery, published in 1908.
While the name Marilla has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, its rich heritage and associations with notable individuals from various fields have contributed to its enduring charm and appeal.
People
Marilla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marilla 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
Marilla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marilla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 343 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marilla 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 999,284 US residents.
Is Marilla a common name?
We classify Marilla as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 789 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marilla most popular?
The single biggest year for Marilla was 2022, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marilla is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marilla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 465 people with the name Marilla, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,716 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 Marilla 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 Marilla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marilla appears almost entirely female. Of the 467 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Marilla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marilla is White at 77.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.3%) and Black (4.3%). 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 Marilla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marilla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.4% (360 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 Marilla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marilla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marilla 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 Marilla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marilla 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 Marilla 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 called Marilla?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.