Marlyn

Where Marlyn comes from

Marlyn hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1915
    First appearance
    #2,526 among girls, 11 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1922
    Marlyn Meltzer born
    programmer for the ENIAC computer
  3. 1925
    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.
  4. 1936
    Peak, #462
    193 babies named Marlyn — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1940
    Marlyn Mason born
    American actress
  6. 1945
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #850.
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Marlyn Meltzer · programmer for the ENIAC computer, 1922–2008
  • Marlyn Mason · American actress, born 1940
  • Marlyn Maisarah · Indonesian politician, born 1980

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.