Molly (name)

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Molly
Molly Malone Statue, Dublin City Centre - geograph.org.uk - 5272963.jpg
A statue of folk song heroine Molly Malone in Dublin, Ireland.
Pronunciation /ˈmɒli/
GenderFemale
Language(s)Irish and English
Other names
Alternative spelling
  • Mollie
  • Moli
Nickname(s)
  • Mols
  • Mol
Derived
Molly Pitcher is a heroine of the American Revolutionary War. Molly Pitcher currier ives.jpg
Molly Pitcher is a heroine of the American Revolutionary War.
Titanic survivor Margaret Brown, who was later called "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." Margaret Brown, 3qtr view, with chair.jpg
Titanic survivor Margaret Brown, who was later called "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."
Molly Malone was the stage name of American silent film actress Violet Isabel Malone. Molly Malone (Sep 1921).png
Molly Malone was the stage name of American silent film actress Violet Isabel Malone.

Molly (also spelled Molli or Mollie) is a diminutive of the feminine name Mary that, like other English diminutives in use since the Middle Ages, substituted l for r. Molly evolved from the English diminutive Mally. [1] English surnames such as Moll, Mollett, and Mollison are derived from Molly. Molly has also been used as a diminutive of Margaret and Martha since the 1700s and as an independent name since at least 1720. The name was more popular in the United States than elsewhere in the Anglosphere in the 1800s due to usage by Irish-American families and by Jewish American families who used Molly as an English version of Hebrew names such as Miriam and Malka. Its popularity with Americans was also influenced by stories about Molly Pitcher, a heroine of the American Revolutionary War. [2]

Contents

Usage

The name has been among the 1,000 most popular names for girls in the United States since 1880 and was among the 100 most popular names for American girls at different times between 1987 and 2012. It has been among the 100 most popular names for newborn girls in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom since the 1990s, and in Denmark since 2019. It was among the top 100 names for girls in some Canadian provinces between 2007 and 2011. [3]

People

Women

Fictional characters

In television and film

In books and comics

 Molly OShea,  character from 2018´s  Red Dead redemption 2.   Molly  Schultz,  character  from GTA V.

In Music

Animals

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Hughes, John P. (June 1972) [6-1], "Celtic Lenition in English Nicknames", Names: A Journal of Onomastics, 20 (2): 101–05{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  2. ↑ Evans, Cleveland Kent (24 September 2023). "Cleveland Evans: Molly peaked with millennials". omaha.com. Omaha World Herald. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  3. ↑ Campbell, Mike (n.d.). "Molly". www.behindthename.com. Behind the Name. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
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