Marlyn
A feminine name of English origin meaning "from the meadow near the lake."
Name Census estimates that about 4,868 living Americans carry the first name Marlyn. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 74.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Marlyn today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marlyn births was 1935 (278 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marlyn. 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 Marlyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.9K
~ 1 in 70,410 Americans
Peak year
1935
278 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2020 SSA rank
#6,293
Tracked since 1913
Census
Marlyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,061 people with the first name Marlyn, which placed it at #2,857 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
#2,857
National first-name rank
People counted
8.1K
8,061 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marlyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marlyn is White at 41.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.8%). 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 Marlyn 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 Marlyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.3% · 3,328
- Hispanic or Latino36.3% · 2,924
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.8% · 954
- Black or African American8.7% · 700
- Two or more races1.3% · 101
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 54
Gender
Gender distribution for Marlyn
Marlyn is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 9,090 total registrations, 2,306 (25.4%) were male and 6,784 (74.6%) were female.
Marlyn as a male name
- Ranked #13,349 in 2020
- 5 male births in 2020
- Peak: 1935 (94 births)
Marlyn as a female name
- Ranked #6,293 in 2024
- 19 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1936 (193 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marlyn leans strongly female. 7,020 people counted with this name were female (87.1%), compared with 1,037 male bearers (12.9%).
Popularity
Marlyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marlyn from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 2,311 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marlyn 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 Marlyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marlyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. California, Pennsylvania, New York recorded the most babies named Marlyn, while Tennessee, Oregon, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 150 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marlyn
The name Marlyn is believed to have its origins in the English language, derived from the combination of two older words: "mere," meaning a small body of water or a lake, and "lyn," which is an Old English word meaning a pool or a waterfall. This suggests that the name Marlyn may have initially referred to someone living near a body of water.
In terms of historical references, the name Marlyn does not appear to have been widely used in ancient texts or religious scriptures. However, there are some notable individuals throughout history who have borne this name.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Marlyn is Marlyn Edward Krueger, an American baseball player who was born in 1913 and played in the Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1935 to 1946. Another early example is Marlyn Aho, a Finnish-American author and poet who lived from 1916 to 1980.
In the 20th century, Marlyn Monrovia Smith, an American actress and model, became famous for her roles in various television shows and films. She was born in 1955 and is still active in the entertainment industry.
Marlyn Wescoff Devine, an American politician, was born in 1927 and served as the First Lady of Ohio from 1963 to 1967, during her husband's tenure as the governor of the state.
In the world of sports, Marlyn Manners was a Canadian ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1966 to 1978. He was born in 1946 and is remembered for his contributions to the Vancouver Canucks and Atlanta Flames.
It is worth noting that while the name Marlyn has been used throughout history, it has never been among the most popular names in various cultures or regions. However, it has maintained a unique and distinctive character, often associated with individuals who have made notable contributions in their respective fields.
People
Marlyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marlyn 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
Marlyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marlyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,868 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marlyn 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 70,410 US residents.
Is Marlyn a common name?
We classify Marlyn as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,090 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marlyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Marlyn was 1935, when 278 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marlyn is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marlyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,061 people with the name Marlyn, or 2.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,857 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 Marlyn 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 Marlyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marlyn leans strongly female. 7,020 people counted with this name were female (87.1%), compared with 1,037 male bearers (12.9%). 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 Marlyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marlyn is White at 41.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.8%). 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 Marlyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marlyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.3% (3,328 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 Marlyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marlyn a female name?
Yes, 74.6% of people registered as Marlyn 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 Marlyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marlyn 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 Marlyn 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 Marlyn?
You can see how many Americans are named Marlyn on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.