Dolly

femaleStatistical record

What official birth registration shows about Dolly: which national registrars published it, in which years, and how its recorded position changed.

No researched meaning, origin or pronunciation yet — what that means.

Dolly: Recorded every year since 1996, it reached #258 in 2015, and it stood at #885 in 2025.

4registrars recorded it
39times a registrar ranked it
30years from first to last
#258highest recorded position
16groupings it qualifies for

Region

Rising

among girls in England and Wales · 1996–2024

View as table

England and Wales · Girls rank by year
Year	Rank
1996	#2096
1997	#3174
1998	#3848
1999	#2189
2000	#2746
2001	#2226
2002	#2105
2003	#3099
2004	#1535
2005	#1200
2006	#2509
2007	#1573
2008	#1093
2009	#806
2010	#664
2011	#681
2012	#479
2013	#276
2014	#260
2015	#258
2016	#310
2017	#305
2018	#303
2019	#295
2020	#320
2021	#318
2022	#351
2023	#327
2024	#341

VerifiedSource: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales.Confidence: high.

See all England and Wales names · Source: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales

What the data shows

RisingEngland and Wales · Girls

Recorded in official data among girls in England and Wales in every year from 1996 to 2024.

In 2024: #341 among girls in England and Wales, #372 among girls in Republic of Ireland, #407 among girls in Northern Ireland, #431 among girls in Scotland.

Official data from 4 national registrars across 4 regions, 1996–2025 · Office for National Statistics. Data sources

Popularity journey

First recorded1996
First recorded at #2096 among girls in England and Wales in 1996 — the earliest year that source publishes this name, not necessarily the earliest it was used.
England and Wales · Girls
Highest recorded1996–2024
Highest recorded position: #258 among girls in England and Wales, in 2015 (recorded 1996–2024).
England and Wales · Girls
Most recent2025
Most recently recorded at #885 among girls in Republic of Ireland, in 2025.
Republic of Ireland · Girls

Dolly appears in 3 of the published lists Namewise holds. The longest record is England and Wales · Girls, which has ranked it in 29 years beginning in 1996, and has registered 2,246 births with the name.

Dolly across 3 official records

Each registrar publishes its own list, so these figures are read down a row, never across one. A position in one country is not comparable with a position in another, and Namewise never combines them into a single ranking. The birth counts do not compare across rows either, for a different reason: England and Wales registers roughly thirty times as many births a year as Northern Ireland, so a larger total says which registrar recorded it as much as how widely the name was given.

Dolly's first, highest and most recent recorded position in each official list, with the number of births each registrar registered with the name and its largest single year
Published list	First recorded	Highest	Most recent	Years recorded	Births registered	Most in one year
England and Wales · Girls	#2096 (1996)	#258 (2015)	#341 (2024)	29 of 29	2,246 (1996–2024)	194 (2015)
Republic of Ireland · Girls	#862 (2008)	#372 (2024)	#885 (2025)	6 of 18	32 (2008–2025)	10 (2022)
Northern Ireland · Girls	#440 (2016)	#391 (2023)	#407 (2024)	3 of 9	9 (2016–2024)	3 (2016)

Dolly by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Births registered with the name in each decade of this one list, with the number of years the list covers in that decade. Bars are scaled on births a year, which is the figure that compares between decades — a decade the list only partly covers has a smaller total without being a quieter decade. Figures belong to this registrar alone and do not carry to another.

Births registered with Dolly in England and Wales · Girls, by decade, with years covered and the average per year
Decade	Births registered	Years covered	A year
1990s	21	4 of 10	5
2000s	153	10 of 10	15
2010sbusiest	1,398	10 of 10	140
2020s	674	5 of 10	135

Across England and Wales · Girls, the 2010s were its busiest decade, averaging 140 births a year.

Its sharpest single-year move came between 2012 and 2013, when recorded births rose by 78, from 93 to 171.

See the names England and Waleshas recorded the most births with →

Dolly appears in

Groupings this name qualifies for under their own stated rules, from the same official statistics shown above.

Popularity data

Official popularity data is available for 4 regions, from 1996 to 2025. Highest recorded position: #258 in England and Wales in 2015.

Dolly's recorded popularity observations by year, region and administrative category, including rank, registered births, source confidence and when each region's data was last reviewed.
Year	Region	Category	Rank	Births registered	Confidence	Status
2024	England and Wales	female	#341	127	High	Verified
2023	England and Wales	female	#327	135	High	Verified
2022	England and Wales	female	#351	122	High	Verified
2021	England and Wales	female	#318	148	High	Verified
2020	England and Wales	female	#320	142	High	Verified
2019	England and Wales	female	#295	164	High	Verified
2018	England and Wales	female	#303	157	High	Verified
2017	England and Wales	female	#305	160	High	Verified
2016	England and Wales	female	#310	159	High	Verified
2015	England and Wales	female	#258	194	High	Verified
2014	England and Wales	female	#260	187	High	Verified
2013	England and Wales	female	#276	171	High	Verified
2012	England and Wales	female	#479	93	High	Verified
2011	England and Wales	female	#681	57	High	Verified
2010	England and Wales	female	#664	56	High	Verified
2009	England and Wales	female	#806	43	High	Verified
2008	England and Wales	female	#1093	27	High	Verified
2007	England and Wales	female	#1573	16	High	Verified
2006	England and Wales	female	#2509	8	High	Verified
2005	England and Wales	female	#1200	20	High	Verified
2004	England and Wales	female	#1535	14	High	Verified
2003	England and Wales	female	#3099	5	High	Verified
2002	England and Wales	female	#2105	8	High	Verified
2001	England and Wales	female	#2226	7	High	Verified
2000	England and Wales	female	#2746	5	High	Verified
1999	England and Wales	female	#2189	7	High	Verified
1998	England and Wales	female	#3848	3	High	Verified
1997	England and Wales	female	#3174	4	High	Verified
1996	England and Wales	female	#2096	7	High	Verified
2024	Northern Ireland	female	#407	3	High	Verified
2023	Northern Ireland	female	#391	3	High	Verified
2016	Northern Ireland	female	#440	3	High	Verified
2025	Republic of Ireland	female	#885	3	High	Verified
2024	Republic of Ireland	female	#372	10	High	Verified
2022	Republic of Ireland	female	#389	10	High	Verified
2020	Republic of Ireland	female	#834	3	High	Verified
2013	Republic of Ireland	female	#894	3	High	Verified
2008	Republic of Ireland	female	#862	3	High	Verified
2024	Scotland	female	#431	7	High	Verified

England and Wales hub — collected by Office for National Statistics
Northern Ireland hub — collected by NISRA
Republic of Ireland hub — collected by CSO Ireland
Scotland hub — collected by National Records of Scotland

See methodology and data sources for how popularity data is collected and what "confidence" means.

What the record shows

Recorded by 4 registrars between 1996 and 2025, ranked in 30 years of that period.

Its highest recorded position is #258, first reached in 2015.

Its largest count from any one registrar is 194 births, registered in England and Wales in 2015.

A second registrar first ranked it in 2008, and 28 years separate the first registrar to record it from the last.

Every figure here is counted from the seven official registrars Namewise holds. A position is only ever a place within the list that published it, and a record that thins or stops is a fact about what registrars printed — never about how many children received the name.

Where to go next

Records with a comparable body of evidence, so the catalogue can be read outward from this one. Each group states the rule it was selected by.

Next in the catalogue

The records either side of this one alphabetically.

Dollie · #696, 20y
Dollie-Mae · #2346, 11y
Dolly-Mae · #1939, 14y
Dolly-May · #2460, 15y

A comparable record

Records held by the same 4 registrars, over a similar number of ranked years, whose highest position is closest to this one. A similar body of evidence — never a claim that the names themselves are alike.

Ajay · #257, 29y
Lilly-Mae · #257, 25y
Ocean · #260, 30y
Sacha · #261, 32y

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Records whose earliest ranking in Namewise's registrar data also falls between 1990 and 1999.

Ajay · #257, 29y
Hauk · #257, 28y
Vår · #257, 30y
Franklin · #260, 29y

Dolly was ranked #258 in England and Wales · Girls in 2015. These are the names immediately either side of it on that published list — a fact about the registrar's own output, not a similarity judgement.

Dolly and the names beside it

Two names in the same published list are measured on the same scale, in the same year, by the same registrar — so these are positions that genuinely passed each other, not a similarity judgement. Drawn from the 2,573 names with a recorded popularity standing (common, familiar, uncommon), so a name outside that set could have passed Dolly without appearing here.

Dolly moved ahead of

Lynette Compare
In 2008 they stood at #2509 and #2509 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2009 that had become #806 and #4564.
Jeanette Compare
In 2003 they stood at #3099 and #2727 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2004 that had become #1535 and #3725.
Finn Compare
In 2000 they stood at #2746 and #2416 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2001 that had become #2226 and #3998.
Lene Compare
In 2000 they stood at #2746 and #1831 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2001 that had become #2226 and #3998.

Moved ahead of Dolly

Harper Compare
In 2011 they stood at #681 and #858 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2012 that had become #479 and #284.
Aria Compare
In 2010 they stood at #664 and #773 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2011 that had become #681 and #615.
Ada Compare
In 2013 they stood at #276 and #280 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2014 that had become #260 and #233.
Mila Compare
In 1996 they stood at #2096 and #2683 in England and Wales · Girls; by 1997 that had become #3174 and #3174.

Moved the opposite way to Dolly

Abigail Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Dolly went from #2096 to #341 while Abigail went from #21 to #154.
Aimee Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Dolly went from #2096 to #341 while Aimee went from #70 to #1603.
Aisling Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Dolly went from #2096 to #341 while Aisling went from #440 to #2000.
Alex Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Dolly went from #2096 to #341 while Alex went from #161 to #2253.

Moved the same way as Dolly

Ada Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Dolly went from #2096 to #341 and Ada from #2683 to #40.
Alma Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Dolly went from #2096 to #341 and Alma from #2096 to #234.
Alyssa Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Dolly went from #2096 to #341 and Alyssa from #783 to #285.
Amalie Compare
Between 1996 and 2024 in England and Wales · Girls, Dolly went from #2096 to #341 and Amalie from #2096 to #1128.

What's not yet available

Meaning
Origin
Pronunciation
Nicknames and spelling variants

Absence from this list does not mean the name isn't genuinely meaningful or widely used — only that Namewise hasn't sourced and reviewed that content yet. Absence from a specific year or geography above does not prove zero use there either; official statistics only publish names above a minimum threshold.

Official popularity data is available for 4 regions, from 1996 to 2025. Highest recorded position: #258 in England and Wales in 2015. Source data last verified 2026-07-21.

Dolly

Dolly at a glance

What the data shows

Popularity journey

Dolly across 3 official records

Dolly by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Dolly appears in

Popularity data

What the record shows

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Names published alongside Dolly

Dolly and the names beside it

Dolly moved ahead of

Moved ahead of Dolly

Moved the opposite way to Dolly

Moved the same way as Dolly

Dolly at a glance

Dolly across 3 official records

Dolly by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Dolly appears in

What the record shows

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Names published alongside Dolly

Dolly and the names beside it

Dolly moved ahead of

Moved ahead of Dolly

Moved the opposite way to Dolly

Moved the same way as Dolly