Mallory

Where Mallory comes from

From an Anglo-Norman nickname for an unfortunate person, from Old French maleure, malheure (“unhappy, unlucky”) (whence French malheur), from mal (“bad”) + eur (“fortune”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Mallory
  • From a surname
  • 3 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1938
    First appearance
    #4,342 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1961
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  3. 1986
    Peak, #83
    3,325 babies named Mallory — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1989
    Mallory Jansen born
    Australian actress
  5. 1993
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #181.
  6. 1998
    Mallory Swanson born
    American soccer player
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name transferred from the surname.
Namesakes
  • Mallory Swanson · American soccer player, born 1998
  • Mallory Jansen · Australian actress, born 1989
  • Mallory Burdette · American tennis player, born 1991
  • Mallory Franklin · British slalom canoeist, born 1994
  • Mallory Comerford · American swimmer, born 1997

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.