How popular is the baby name Marilyn in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Marilyn.

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Popularity of the baby name Marilyn


Posts that mention the name Marilyn

What turned Tab into a baby name in 1953?

Actor Tab Hunter (1931-2018)
Tab Hunter

American actor Tab Hunter isn’t really named Tab Hunter. His real name is Arthur Gelien. According to Tab’s autobiography, his unique stage name was coined by Hollywood talent agent Henry Willson.*

Exasperated, Henry finally said, “C’mon, we’ve got to tab him something.” He thought…for about two more seconds. “Hey, that’s not bad,” he announced. “Tab.”

As soon as Tab Hunter’s acting career started taking off in the early 1950s, parents began naming their sons Tab:

  • 1962: 44 boys named Tab
  • 1961: 52 boys named Tab
  • 1960: 66 boys named Tab (rank: 937th)
  • 1959: 89 boys named Tab (rank: 813th)
  • 1958: 82 boys named Tab (rank: 831st)
  • 1957: 120 boys named Tab (rank: 698th)
  • 1956: 68 boys named Tab (rank: 907th)
  • 1955: 43 boys named Tab
  • 1954: 13 boys named Tab
  • 1953: 6 boys named Tab [debut]
  • 1952: unlisted

That spike in ’57 can likely be attributed to a song — Tab’s version of “Young Love,” which hit the #1 spot on several different Billboard charts in 1957.

The soft drink TaB was introduced in 1963, but the drink wasn’t named for the actor, and its introduction didn’t seem to affect the usage of Tab as a baby name.

Dozens of babies continued to be named Tab every year until the early ’70s. The name last appeared on the SSA’s baby name list in the ’90s.

*Henry Willson invented snappy names for many of his clients. He turned Robert Mosely into Guy Madison, Roy Fitzgerald into Rock Hudson (inspired by the Rock of Gibraltar and the Hudson River), Francis Durgin into Rory Calhoun, Merle Johnson into Troy Donahue, and redhead Marilyn Louis into Rhonda Fleming (“Fleming sounds like flaming, plays up her hair”).

Sources:

  • Hunter, Tab and Eddie Muller. Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2006.
  • Hofler, Robert. The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006.

Baby name story: Findlay

In March of 1982, shareholders approved the merger of U.S. Steel and Findlay, Ohio-based Marathon Oil. Newspapers at the time called it the “second-largest corporate takeover in history.”

Expectant parents Marilyn Chin and Ronald Yurcak were both working for a New York City investment banking firm involved in the merger. On March 24, about 2 weeks after the merger, they welcomed a baby girl named Jennifer Findlay Yurcak.

“For months, the talk was about Marathon and about Findlay, Ohio,” Ms. Chin said in a telephone interview. “The more I heard the name, the more I liked it. It has a nice ring to it.”

The couple said they would have used Findlay as a middle name regardless of the baby’s gender.

Sources:

  • “Corporate Merger Gives Baby a Name.” Lakeland Ledger 9 Apr. 1982: 7D.
  • “Baby Named After Merger.” Lodi News-Sentinel 15 Mar. 1982: 10.
  • “Findlay Baby.” Times-News [Hendersonville, NC] 15 Mar. 1982: 2.

What popularized the baby name Marilyn in the 1920s?

Broadway actress Marilyn Miller (1898-1936)
Marilyn Miller

In the early 1920s, the baby name Marilyn, which was already on the rise, began to rise much more swiftly:

  • 1925: 3,419 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 83rd]
  • 1924: 2,860 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 101st]
  • 1923: 2,286 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 118th]
  • 1922: 1,698 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 145th]
  • 1921: 696 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 253rd]
  • 1920: 522 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 288th]

By 1925, it was one of the top 100 girl names in the nation.

Graph of the popularity of the baby name Marilyn in the U.S. since 1880.
Usage of the baby name Marilyn

What popularized it?

Broadway star Marilyn Miller, who was at the height of her fame in the 1920s. After performing in several Ziegfeld Follies shows, she went on to star in musical comedies like Sally (1920), Sunny (1925), and Rosalie (1928). She also appeared in several films.

She was born Mary Ellen Reynolds in Indiana in 1898. Her stage name was created by combining her first name with her mother’s middle name (Lynn), and adding her stepfather’s surname (Miller). She initially spelled it “Marilynn.”

Sadly, Marilyn Miller died in 1936 (due to complications following nasal surgery). The same year, the name Marilyn reached the highest ranking it would ever attain:

  • 1939: 9,539 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 19th]
  • 1938: 9,745 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 19th]
  • 1937: 9,738 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 13th]
  • 1936: 11,065 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 13th]
  • 1935: 10,416 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 14th]
  • 1934: 9,384 baby girls named Marilyn [rank: 17th]

A decade later, in 1946, Twentieth Century Fox executive Ben Lyon — a former actor who had co-stared with Marilyn Miller in her last film — signed a young actress named Norma Jeane Baker. She reminded him of Miller, so he suggested that she change her name to “Marilyn.” Adding her mother’s maiden name, she became “Marilyn Monroe.”

The baby name Marilyn remained in the top 100 until 1959, with Marilyn Monroe giving it a bit of a boost in the mid-1950s. Since then, though, usage has been slowly declining (except for a couple of years in the early 2010s, thanks to the 2011 Marilyn Monroe biopic My Week with Marilyn).

What are your thoughts on the name Marilyn?

Sources:

P.S. A few decades later, another Mary Ellen in the entertainment business became famous under the name Mala…

Old names vs. new names in Plymouth, Mass.

In the comment section of last week’s post on old & new French names, Bridgett came up with a great idea: Why not do the same thing for a U.S. city?

I checked the online editions of 8 or 9 U.S. city newspapers. Some had birth announcements, others had obits/death notices, the rest had neither. So I gave up on cities, switched to towns, and soon found some useful information for Plymouth, Massachusetts:

Male Births Male Deaths Female Births Female Deaths
Aidan
Alexander
Calvin
Connor
Jayden
John
Levon
Oliver
Patrick
Souheil
William
Zachary 		Albert
Alfred
Carl
David
James
Joseph
Joseph
Paul
Steven 		Ashlynn
Brianna
Grace
Isobel
Ivy
Kealyn
Leila
Lila
Marlee
Molly 		Alice
Barbara
Beatrice
Deanna
Elizabeth
Elsie
Karin
Lorraine
Marilyn
Mirandy
Miriam
Rose
Virginia
Virginia

I couldn’t list two of the babies — Skyler Reece and Riley Paige — because I’m not sure about the gender in either case. (I would guess they’re both female, but who knows.)

Also, I should mention that the average age of those listed in the death announcements is 78.

Now it’s your turn: Which set do you prefer, the “old” names or the “new” names?

Also, if you know of a city newspaper that publishes both birth and death announcements online, I’d appreciate it if you would shoot me an e-mail. Thanks!