Marylee
A feminine name derived from combining "Mary" and "Lee".
Name Census estimates that about 1,644 living Americans carry the first name Marylee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marylee today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marylee births was 1941 (89 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marylee. 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.
People living today
1.6K
~ 1 in 208,488 Americans
Peak year
1941
89 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,936
Tracked since 1900
Census
Marylee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,324 people with the first name Marylee, which placed it at #4,354 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
#4,354
National first-name rank
People counted
4.3K
4,324 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marylee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marylee is White at 84.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.4%) and Black (4.8%). 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 Marylee 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 Marylee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.9% · 3,672
- Hispanic or Latino6.4% · 276
- Black or African American4.8% · 206
- Two or more races1.9% · 82
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 58
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 30
Popularity
Marylee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marylee from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 759 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marylee 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 Marylee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Marylees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Marylee, while Washington, Mississippi, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 37 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marylee
The name Marylee is a combination of the names Mary and Lee, both of which have distinct origins and meanings. The name Mary has its roots in the ancient Hebrew name Miryam, which means "beloved" or "wished-for child." It is derived from the root word "mrr," meaning "bitter" or "beloved." This name gained significant importance with the birth of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the New Testament.
Lee, on the other hand, is an English surname that originated as a diminutive of the name Leah. Leah is a Hebrew name meaning "weary" or "tired." The name Lee was also used as a given name in its own right and has been particularly popular among English-speaking populations.
While the combination of Mary and Lee into Marylee is relatively modern, the individual components have a long and storied history. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Mary can be found in the Gospel of Luke, where it is used to refer to the mother of Jesus. The name gained widespread popularity among Christians and has been a common name in many cultures influenced by Christianity.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Mary or its variants. These include Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), a prominent figure in Scottish history; Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), a pioneering feminist and author; and Mary Shelley (1797-1851), the author of the iconic novel "Frankenstein."
The name Lee, while not as extensively documented as Mary, has also been borne by several notable individuals. These include Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), a prominent Confederate general during the American Civil War, and Harper Lee (1926-2016), the author of the classic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird."
While the name Marylee is a relatively modern combination, it draws upon the rich histories and cultural significance of its individual components. The combination of these two names creates a unique and distinctive moniker that carries with it the weight of centuries of tradition and meaning.
People
Marylee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marylee 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
Marylee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marylee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,644 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marylee 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 208,488 US residents.
Is Marylee a common name?
We classify Marylee as "Rare". It ranks above 92.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,376 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marylee most popular?
The single biggest year for Marylee was 1941, when 89 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marylee is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marylee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,324 people with the name Marylee, or 1.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,354 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 Marylee 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 Marylee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marylee appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,320 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Marylee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marylee is White at 84.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.4%) and Black (4.8%). 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 Marylee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marylee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.9% (3,672 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 Marylee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marylee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marylee 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 Marylee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marylee 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 Marylee 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 named Marylee?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Marylee at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.