Dolly
2025 SSA
Below 5 births
About Dolly
Sweet and cosy with a touch of sass, this nickname-y choice was a familiar option up until the sixties in the US. Then, for a while, it was a bit of a one-person name, associated with singer Dolly Parton, but more recently, it's been singing a fashionable note again along with sisters Dottie and Millie.
Typically short for Dorothy or its sister, Dorothea, Dolly has been used on its own since the seventeenth century, so common then that it became a generic term for a favored girl. In the US, it was a Top 300 name around the turn of the last 20th century.
The fourth First Lady of the United States spelled her name variously as Dolly and Dolley Madison. And of course Dolly Levi is the name of the central character in the iconic musical bearing her name. Then, there's Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned, and the British writer and journalist, Dolly Alderton, who likely helped bring this name back into the England and Wales Top 1000 back in 2008.
While some may read it as just a touch too cutesy, Dolly does fit right in with Birdie, Scottie, Maisie, Etta, Goldie, and so on, and was a Top 400 choice in the UK in a recent year. Its return to the stage in the US has been quieter, but 127 girls were called Dolly in the latest count: more than double the number who were given the name in 2020.
Love Dolly but want a full name besides Dorothy and Dorothea? You could try Dahlia, Gwendolyn, Theodora, Delphine, Odilia, or Dolores.
Dolly is also given to boys.
Pronounced DAH-lee.
As of October 2026, Dolly ranked #1781 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #277 in 1881, Nameberry popularity #281.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank · girls | Births · girls | US rank · boys | Births · boys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | — | 0 | — | 0 |
| 2015 | #4,625 | 30 | — | 0 |
| 2016 | #3,664 | 42 | — | 0 |
| 2017 | #3,256 | 49 | — | 0 |
| 2018 | #3,063 | 53 | — | 0 |
| 2019 | #3,012 | 54 | — | 0 |
| 2020 | #2,726 | 61 | — | 0 |
| 2021 | #2,155 | 87 | — | 0 |
| 2022 | #1,805 | 113 | — | 0 |
| 2023 | #1,616 | 129 | — | 0 |
| 2024 | #1,624 | 127 | — | 0 |
| 2025 | #1,781 | 113 | — | 0 |
World rankings
Dolly for girls
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Dolly.
Dolly on lists
Famous Dollys
- Dolly Rebecca PartonGirl
American country music singer
- Dorothy Clara Louise "Dolly" HaasGirl
German,American actress, wife of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld
- Dorothy Theresa "Dolly" HallGirl
American film producer
- Dorothy Ann "Dolly" CollinsGirl
English folk musician
- Dolly Buster aka Nora Baumberger (born Nora Dvořáková)Girl
Czech,American actress
- Dolly JacobsGirl
American circus aerialist
- Dorothy "Dolly" PeelGirl
English fishwife and smuggler
- Dorothy "Dolly" PentreathGirl
Last native Cornish speaker
- Dolly RathebeGirl
South African singer/actress
- Dolly VanderlipGirl
All,American Girls Professional Baseball League pitcher
- Dolly BanksGirl
Baddiel (b. 2001), daughter of actress Morwenna Banks
- Dolly Rebecca Rose O'Connell (b. 2009)Girl
daughter of actors Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell
- The Dolly SistersGirl
Jenny and Rosie Dolly, Hungarian,American identical twin dancers and actresses, famous in the 1920s
- DollyGirl
Rose Campbell, English actress
Dolly in pop culture
- Darya "Dolly" Alexandrovna OblonskayaGirl
character in Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina"
- Dolly Gallagher LeviGirl
main character in Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker" and musical "Hello, Dolly!"
- Dolly MeriwetherGirl
character in Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind"
- Dolly KeaneGirl
character in The Family Circus comic strip
- Dolly SkilbeckGirl
character on British soap "Emmerdale"
- Dolly RawlinsGirl
character in "Widows"
- DollyGirl
doll in Pixar's "Toy Story 3"
- DollyGirl
occasional nickname for Dolores "Lolita" Haze in Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" ("she was Dolly at school")
- DollyGirl
Scottish cloned sheep
- "Dolly DaggerGirl
" song by Jimi Hendrix
- "Little Dolly DaydreamGirl
" English music hall song by Leslie Stuart.
- DollyGirl
a character featured in Billion Surprise Toys videos. The doctor told her to never play in the rain, and she replied, "okay sure I will do like that"
Variations & nicknames
- DolleyGirl