Minnie

Diminutive of Wilhelmina
"resolute protection"

Minnie Origin and Meaning

The name Minnie is a girl's name meaning "resolute protection".

Minnie was wildly popular at the turn of the last century — it was the fifth or sixth most popular name throughout the 1880s — but is completely obscure today. Blame Mickey's girlfriend. Regardless, it's possible that the up and coming trend toward old-fashioned nickname-names — think Maisie, Mamie, Millie — may give Minnie (all on its own, not as a short form of anything) a new moment in the sun. Minnie Driver (born Amelia) has given it some modern celeb cred.

There have been characters named Minnie in Dickens's Little Dorrit and Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra. Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" is a jazz classic.

Minnie can really be short for just about any M name (and some non-M names as well, such as Wilhelmina), including Minerva, Mary, and Margaret.

# 956 in the US

Minnie Rank in US Top 1000

# 630 on Nameberry

Minnie Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Minnie Popularity

Famous People Named Minnie

  • Amelia Fiona "Minnie" Driver
    English actress
  • Minnie
    stage name of Nicha Yontararak; singer in South Korean girl group (G)I,DLE
  • Minnie Pearl (born Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon)
    American country comedienne
  • Minnie Julia Riperton
    American singer
  • Amalia Mignon "Minnie" Hauck
    American opera singer
  • Minnie Fisher Cunningham
    American suffragist; first executive secretary of the League of Women Voters
  • Minnie D. Craig
    American politician
  • Minnie Devereaux
    Canadian silent film actress
  • Minnie Maddern Fiske (born Marie Augusta Davey)
    American stage actress
  • Minnie Gentry (born Minnie Lee Watson)
    American actress
  • Minnie Dupree
    American actress
  • Minnie Marx (born Miene Schönberg)
    American manager and mother of the Marx Brothers
  • Minnie Egener
    American opera singer
  • Minnie Pwerle
    Australian Aboriginal painter
  • Huldah Pierce "Minnie" Warren
    American dwarf singer and circus performer
  • Minnie Tittell Brune
    American,Australian actress
  • Pearl Minnie Anderson (b. 2005)
    daughter of actress Maya Rudolph and director Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Minnie Blossom Bourne (b. 2013)
    daughter of singer Rachel Stevens & Alex Bourne
  • Minnie Ida Anderson (b. 2013)
    daughter of Maya Rudolph and Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Minnie Theodora Osbourne (b. 2018)
    daughter of English media personality Jack Osbourne, sister to Pearl Clementine and Andy Rose

Minnie in Pop Culture

  • Minnie Mouse
    Disney character
  • Minnie Brandon
    the daughter of Rebecca "Becky" Brandon (nee Bloomwood) and Luke Brandon from the 'Shopaholic' book series written by Sophie Kinsella
  • Minnie May Barry
    character in L.M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables"
  • Minnie "Pet" Meagles Gowan
    character in Charles Dickens' "Little Dorrit"
  • Minnie the Minx
    character in British comic "The Beano"
  • Minnie Crozier
    character on New Zealand soap "Shortland Street"
  • Minnie Bannister
    character on British radio series "The Goon Show"
  • Minnie Bishop
    character in anime/manga "Strike Witches"
  • "Minnie the Moocher
    " jazz song by Cab Calloway
  • Minnie Fay
    character from movie "Hello, Dolly!"
  • Minnie Goetze
    character in the graphic novel and film "The Diary of a Teenage Girl"