Molly
A pet form of Mary, carrying the old Hebrew sense "bitter". In Poland it stays rare: around 170 women and girls hold it, and given only to a handful of newborns each year, most Poles will never meet one.
Molly Pronunciation
Molly is pronounced MOL-lih (/ˈmɔllɨ/).
What Molly means
Where Molly comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Molly began as a pet form of Mary, and Mary traces back through Latin and Greek to the Hebrew Miriam. Scholars link that name to a root meaning "bitter," though its earliest sense is debated. Molly kept the warmth of a nickname while standing on its own.
The reading "bitter" sits at the far end of a long line. It belongs to Miriam, and Molly inherited it only by descent from Mary. In English it became its own name. James Joyce gave Molly Bloom the closing pages of Ulysses, a long unpunctuated "yes" that made the name literary.
On a Polish class register today, a Molly might sit between Maja and Nadia, spelled the English way. She has no name-day of her own, borrowing instead the imieniny of Maria. The meaning underneath stays the same: bitter, drawn from Miriam.
How many people are named Molly
1 in 130311 women in Poland is named Molly. 173 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2428 among female names.
Molly's popularity over time
2 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1738 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2022.
Where parents choose Molly
Molly is most popular in Greater Poland, 904% above the national average (2 girls born 2019–2025).
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Greater Poland
+904%1 in 107,622 babies
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Greater Poland+904% 2 born1 in 107,622 babies+904%
Molly as a middle name
Molly is a first name for 173 women in Poland and a middle name for another 41, an 81/19 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1082nd, between Marisa (41) and Summer (41).
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#1080 Julieta41
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#1081 Marisa41
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#1082 Molly41
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#1083 Summer41
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#1084 Sybila41