Marlys
Marlys was last recorded in 2022, when 5 babies were given it; 8,963 Americans have been recorded with it between 1910 and 2022 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,850 Americans named Marlys and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (43% of everyone recorded); the median is 78 years old and half are between 70 and 85.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Marlys by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Marlys?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #16,853, in 2022; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
369 babies in 1937, the peak
Marlys peaked in 1937, when 369 girls were given it, #325 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5 | #16,853 | under 0.01 |
| 2021 | 5 | #16,829 | under 0.01 |
| 2020 | 5 | #16,664 | under 0.01 |
| 2018 | 5 | #17,277 | under 0.01 |
| 2016 | 11 | #9,842 | 0.01 |
| 2015 | 5 | #18,190 | under 0.01 |
| 2012 | 6 | #16,193 | under 0.01 |
| 2008 | 7 | #14,827 | under 0.01 |
| 2006 | 6 | #16,413 | under 0.01 |
| 2004 | 6 | #15,369 | under 0.01 |
Every recorded year (94)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 6 | #15,068 | under 0.01 |
| 2001 | 5 | #16,972 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 5 | #14,946 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 5 | #14,872 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 5 | #14,862 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 5 | #14,895 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 9 | #9,048 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 5 | #14,360 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 6 | #11,226 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,460 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 5 | #12,078 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 5 | #11,771 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 8 | #7,758 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 6 | #9,967 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 11 | #6,151 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 8 | #7,743 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 11 | #5,815 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 10 | #6,165 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 10 | #5,856 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 10 | #5,807 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,617 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 8 | #6,434 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 18 | #3,487 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 15 | #4,053 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 23 | #2,997 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 23 | #2,810 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 21 | #2,838 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 29 | #2,250 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 30 | #2,174 | 0.02 |
| 1965 | 25 | #2,444 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 62 | #1,440 | 0.03 |
| 1963 | 52 | #1,575 | 0.03 |
| 1962 | 67 | #1,356 | 0.03 |
| 1961 | 75 | #1,283 | 0.04 |
| 1960 | 79 | #1,233 | 0.04 |
| 1959 | 93 | #1,113 | 0.05 |
| 1958 | 98 | #1,062 | 0.05 |
| 1957 | 107 | #1,012 | 0.05 |
| 1956 | 121 | #917 | 0.06 |
| 1955 | 113 | #924 | 0.06 |
| 1954 | 150 | #764 | 0.08 |
| 1953 | 178 | #675 | 0.09 |
| 1952 | 160 | #705 | 0.09 |
| 1951 | 190 | #627 | 0.11 |
| 1950 | 181 | #634 | 0.11 |
| 1949 | 179 | #617 | 0.10 |
| 1948 | 194 | #598 | 0.11 |
| 1947 | 227 | #567 | 0.13 |
| 1946 | 243 | #500 | 0.15 |
| 1945 | 234 | #468 | 0.18 |
| 1944 | 227 | #472 | 0.17 |
| 1943 | 285 | #438 | 0.20 |
| 1942 | 264 | #454 | 0.20 |
| 1941 | 282 | #410 | 0.23 |
| 1940 | 295 | #394 | 0.26 |
| 1939 | 343 | #343 | 0.31 |
| 1938 | 360 | #333 | 0.33 |
| 1937 | 369 | #325 | 0.35 |
| 1936 | 367 | #323 | 0.35 |
| 1935 | 350 | #342 | 0.33 |
| 1934 | 343 | #344 | 0.33 |
| 1933 | 312 | #354 | 0.31 |
| 1932 | 240 | #423 | 0.22 |
| 1931 | 277 | #392 | 0.26 |
| 1930 | 211 | #462 | 0.19 |
| 1929 | 170 | #523 | 0.15 |
| 1928 | 160 | #553 | 0.14 |
| 1927 | 158 | #565 | 0.13 |
| 1926 | 123 | #652 | 0.10 |
| 1925 | 113 | #695 | 0.09 |
| 1924 | 84 | #816 | 0.07 |
| 1923 | 81 | #817 | 0.07 |
| 1922 | 52 | #1,056 | 0.04 |
| 1921 | 66 | #916 | 0.05 |
| 1920 | 48 | #1,084 | 0.04 |
| 1919 | 43 | #1,131 | 0.04 |
| 1918 | 27 | #1,558 | 0.02 |
| 1917 | 27 | #1,462 | 0.02 |
| 1916 | 16 | #2,091 | 0.02 |
| 1915 | 24 | #1,506 | 0.02 |
| 1914 | 13 | #1,976 | 0.02 |
| 1913 | 11 | #1,978 | 0.02 |
| 1912 | 5 | #3,267 | 0.01 |
| 1910 | 5 | #2,649 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Marlys a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Marlys has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 94 years of records.
Girls and boys named Marlys: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Marlys, and how old are they?
3,850 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 43% of the 8,963 Americans ever recorded as Marlys. The median Marlys alive today is 78 years old; half are between 70 and 85.
The 2020 Census counted 5,598 people named Marlys (5,591 women and girls, 7 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,052 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% above 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1,550 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,910 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 228 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 81 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 36 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 36 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Marlys born?
The states with the most babies named Marlys are Minnesota, Iowa and North Dakota, with 76% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Minnesota and Iowa and North Dakota are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | 3,212 | not ranked | 16.3× |
| Iowa | 1,444 | not ranked | 8.5× |
| North Dakota | 1,070 | not ranked | 20.3× |
| South Dakota | 758 | not ranked | 15.2× |
| Wisconsin | 489 | not ranked | 2.2× |
| California | 170 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Washington | 105 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 101 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Nebraska | 94 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Kansas | 28 | not ranked | 0.2× |
Where Marlys is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Marlys is most over-represented in North Dakota: since 1910 it was given 20.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Marlys with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 10,739 babies since 1880, Marlys is the most given (83% 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 Marlys
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 Marlys and names like it
- Compare Marlys and MarlisBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1930sMarlys peaked in 1937.
- Minnesota’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Marlys since 1910.
- The top names of 1937The year the most babies were named Marlys.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Marlys alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with MMost given first.