Marlis
Marlis was last recorded in 2001, when 5 babies were given it; 846 Americans have been recorded with it between 1919 and 2001 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Marlis by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Marlis mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Marlis is “a female given name, a less common variant of Marlies”
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Marlis?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #16,971, in 2001; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
33 babies in 1941, the peak
Marlis peaked in 1941, when 33 girls were given it, #1,351 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 5 | #16,971 | 2.8 |
| 1988 | 7 | #9,935 | 3.9 |
| 1986 | 6 | #10,353 | 3.5 |
| 1983 | 5 | #11,304 | 3.0 |
| 1976 | 8 | #7,013 | 5.5 |
| 1974 | 7 | #7,372 | 4.8 |
| 1971 | 6 | #7,954 | 3.6 |
| 1970 | 8 | #6,143 | 4.6 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,198 | 3.0 |
| 1968 | 9 | #5,014 | 5.5 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | 6 | #6,517 | 3.6 |
| 1965 | 10 | #4,389 | 5.7 |
| 1964 | 13 | #3,818 | 6.9 |
| 1963 | 11 | #4,171 | 5.7 |
| 1962 | 6 | #6,318 | 3.1 |
| 1961 | 9 | #4,766 | 4.5 |
| 1960 | 6 | #6,133 | 3.0 |
| 1959 | 12 | #3,746 | 5.9 |
| 1958 | 19 | #2,721 | 9.4 |
| 1957 | 14 | #3,243 | 6.8 |
| 1956 | 21 | #2,508 | 10.5 |
| 1955 | 18 | #2,686 | 9.2 |
| 1954 | 28 | #2,008 | 14.4 |
| 1953 | 22 | #2,273 | 11.7 |
| 1952 | 25 | #2,056 | 13.5 |
| 1951 | 13 | #3,049 | 7.2 |
| 1950 | 15 | #2,733 | 8.8 |
| 1949 | 24 | #1,997 | 14.0 |
| 1948 | 17 | #2,461 | 10.0 |
| 1947 | 23 | #2,070 | 13.0 |
| 1946 | 26 | #1,795 | 16.5 |
| 1945 | 16 | #2,205 | 12.2 |
| 1944 | 22 | #1,843 | 16.6 |
| 1943 | 23 | #1,815 | 16.5 |
| 1942 | 28 | #1,579 | 20.7 |
| 1941 | 33 | #1,351 | 27.3 |
| 1940 | 32 | #1,335 | 28.0 |
| 1939 | 27 | #1,456 | 24.6 |
| 1938 | 32 | #1,306 | 29.0 |
| 1937 | 17 | #1,970 | 16.0 |
| 1936 | 27 | #1,434 | 26.0 |
| 1935 | 18 | #1,891 | 17.2 |
| 1934 | 29 | #1,367 | 27.8 |
| 1933 | 13 | #2,357 | 12.9 |
| 1932 | 19 | #1,857 | 17.8 |
| 1931 | 14 | #2,266 | 13.1 |
| 1930 | 11 | #2,796 | 9.8 |
| 1929 | 5 | #5,029 | 4.5 |
| 1928 | 15 | #2,342 | 13.0 |
| 1927 | 13 | #2,649 | 10.9 |
| 1926 | 6 | #4,651 | 5.1 |
| 1925 | 13 | #2,720 | 10.7 |
| 1924 | 5 | #5,591 | 4.0 |
| 1923 | 6 | #4,763 | 5.0 |
| 1921 | 5 | #5,615 | 4.1 |
| 1920 | 8 | #3,831 | 6.7 |
| 1919 | 5 | #5,291 | 4.4 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Marlis a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Marlis has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 57 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Marlis: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Marlis, and how old are they?
An estimated 447 Americans named Marlis and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (53% of everyone recorded); the median is 74 years old and half are between 66 and 82. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 953 people named Marlis (893 women and girls, 60 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 547 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 10,740 babies since 1880, Marlis is the second most given (7.9% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Marlis
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Marlis and names like it
- Compare Marlis and MarlysBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1940sMarlis peaked in 1941.
- Minnesota’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Marlis since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Marlis: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1941The year the most babies were named Marlis.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Marlis alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with MMost given first.