Name profile

Marilyn

feminine

91First-name usabilityHighly workable
Evidence coverageGood

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English, a 20th-century compound of "Mary" and the name-suffix "-lyn"; Mary's own root is uncertain, with theories including Hebrew and Egyptian derivations.

Why it works

  • English speakers will almost certainly pronounce it correctly on the first try
  • spelling is short and predictable — rarely needs repeating

Popularity

Uncommon — #761 in the latest U.S. ranking.

Meaning and origin

Marilyn means A combination of "Mary" and the common name suffix "-lyn." Mary's own root meaning is not known for certain; competing theories include "sea of bitterness," "rebelliousness," and "wished-for child," with an Egyptian origin (from mry, "beloved," or mr, "love") considered plausible by the fetched source.

Rose to fashion in the United States in the 1920s and peaked at #13 in the national rankings in 1936; strongly associated with mid-20th-century American culture through its most famous bearer, Marilyn Monroe.

Documented origin: English, a 20th-century compound of "Mary" and the name-suffix "-lyn"; Mary's own root is uncertain, with theories including Hebrew and Egyptian derivations.

Documented as a variant or related form of another name.

How it travels

English and Turkish are shown by default; German is included when it adds a meaningfully different reading.

English/ˈmæɹ.ə.lɪn/ (English-conventional) — English-conventional; no other language pronunciation was documented.researched pronunciation
TurkishNo strong structural signal of Turkish/English divergence for this spelling.deterministic phonetic analysis
GermanNo strong structural signal of German/English divergence for this spelling.deterministic phonetic analysis

Spelling stability: highbased on letter-pattern analysis, not a documented linguistic fact.

Also documented

English: /ˈmæɹ.ə.lɪn/

Popularity without panic

Uncommon#761 in the latest U.S. ranking.

Still uncommon, but no longer unfamiliar.

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Real-world considerations

    Explore alternatives
    Mary

    Documented as a related name or variant form.

    Maria

    Documented as a related name or variant form.

    Miriam

    Documented as a related name or variant form.