Holly

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Hawley in SG Singapore.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Holly is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name90K records spelled Holly6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, Argentina

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Hollý

• a separate given name59K records spelled Holly2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy

  Also written Hollý

• Polish given name11K records spelled Holly59 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, United Kingdom

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

  Also written Hollie, Holley, Hollý, Холли, Hawley

• Indonesian given name5.5K records spelled Holly4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Canada

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay, Malagasy

  Also written Hòlly

58 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Holly is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• From the vocabulary word denoting the evergreen shrub or tree (Middle English holi(n), Old English holegn). The name was first used at the beginning of the 20th century, and has been particularly popular since about 1960. It is bestowed especially on girls born around Christmas, when sprigs of holly are traditionally taken indoors to decorate rooms. Variant: Hollie.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• part-translation of Gaelic Mac Cuilinn (see McCullen) in County Kerry, and in Ulster sometimes a variant of McQuillan, also an Anglicized form of Mac Cuilinn. It is rarely of English origin.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• Possibly an altered spelling of Czech or Slovak Holy (see Holy).

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In English, Any of various shrubs or (mostly) small trees, of the genus Ilex, either evergreen or deciduous, used as decoration especially at Christmas.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, Person who lives by a holly tree.

  as a name·Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 133 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Arthur Holly Comptonb. 1892USAmerican physicist (1892–1962)
• Michelle Phillipsb. 1944USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer and actress
• Holly Palanceb. 1950USAmerican actress
• Holly Hunterb. 1958USAmerican actress (born 1958)
• Holly Blackb. 1971USAmerican children's fiction writer
• Holly Marie Combsb. 1973USAmerican actress
• Holly Madisonb. 1979USAmerican television personality
• Holly Holmb. 1981USAmerican boxer and mixed martial artist (born 1981)
• Mae Mullerb. 1997GBnot in their usual nameBritish singer
• Holly Taylorb. 1997USCanadian actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 915 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Holly?

We estimate roughly 184 thousand people bear Holly (counting its spellings and scripts) across 5 countries in our records.

In which country does Holly have the most bearers?

We estimate about 182 thousand people bear Holly in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled holly.

How common is Holly compared with other names?

In the United States, Holly is the 298th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Holly a male or female name?

Holly is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Holly mean?

Recorded meaning: From the name of the tree; suitable for a child born around Christmas.