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Milly

#1,790 in 2025Girls' name

Diminutive of Emilie

Milly has been given to 3,347 babies in the U.S. since 1884. In 2025 it ranked #1,790 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2014, with 129 recorded.

Babies named Milly, 2025

1 in 29,300

Milly over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Milly: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Emilie

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Milly means

Milly is a diminutive of Emilie.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Milly → Emilie. The family’s meaning is “eager; emulating, rivaling”, recorded in Norwegian Bokmål with the source elements aemulus.

Origin, language, and formation

Milly is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Emilie, Mildred, Millicent, Emily and Camilla.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,347 girls were recorded with the name Milly between 1884 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 129 in 2014; its best national rank was #714 in 1884.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,877 in 2020 to #1,790 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #2,160 in 2015 to #1,790 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Milly?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 29,300
113 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 14,200
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,790
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
20,337 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Milly sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5002%

Put another way: gather 20,337 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Milly. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Millys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Milly was born before 2010 — so the typical Milly is around 15 today.

Median birth year
2010
About 15 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
30.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
65.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,749
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 30.6% of all recorded uses (1,024).

Is Milly rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+13
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+87
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+370
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.28×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
87.6%
Peak was 2014 (129)
Years since peak
11
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#714
1884

Spellings of Milly

Milly is not the most common spelling — Emily is, with 29.4% against Milly's 0.11%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Milly is used

Across 2016–2025, Milly was most concentrated in Utah — about 1 in 10,000 girls, against 1 in 21,565 across all states with data. It was least common in New Jersey (1 in 100,000).

110 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Utah1 in 10,000
  2. 2California1 in 12,500
  3. 3New York1 in 16,667
  4. 4Texas1 in 16,667
  5. 5Florida1 in 20,000
  6. 6Nevada1 in 20,000
  7. 7Indiana1 in 25,000
  8. 8North Carolina1 in 25,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Milly around the world

Where Milly ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #792
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1997–2025
    #632
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2010–2013
    #440
    in 2013
  • Ireland
    2000–2022
    #747
    in 2022
  • France
    1919–2025
    #1,786
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1993–2024
    #3,457
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1951–2013
    #403
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Milly

People whose public names include Milly, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Milly in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Milly. Linked forms have their own page here.

MillieMildredMillicentMilija

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Milly by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,790
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 87
Best rank ever
#714
1884
Peak year
2014
129 that year
First recorded
1884
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,347
Count in 2025
113

Names similar to Milly

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MilahMillaMillerMilanTillyMilanaMilaniaMileyMilenaBillyMilkaMileenaMileeMilaniMilliMilagroNellyKallyMilesEllyMiliaReillyMildaMiliana

Names with a curve like Milly

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Milly, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

HonorIsadoraSerafinaLotusNoellaKlaraElaVivianneCosetteJudeEverCalla

Sibling names for Milly

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Milly

Top names of 2014, Milly's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 1884Girls' names starting with M