Holly (name)

Holly is an English-language surname and given name. It is also often used as a nickname for people named Heather.

Holly is known as an English or Irish surname (variant Holley) it is either locational, ultimately derived from the Old English hol lēah "[dwelling by] the clearing by the hollow", or descriptive, from hol-ēage "hollow-eyed".  In Ireland, it was also used as a translation of the name Mac Cuilinn, which is derived from cuileann, the Gaelic name of the holly tree, and by extension sometimes of the similar-sounding  McQuillan surname of Ulster. The masculine names Holly, Hollie were derived from the surname, but have mostly fallen out of use since the mid 20th century due to the rise in popularity of the feminine name.
Hollis is an English surname derived from a Middle English holis "[dwelling by] holly trees"; it was also used as a masculine given name.

Holly (variants Hollie, Holley) was first used as a feminine given name in the 20th century, as a "botanical" name given to girls, in reference to, or at least secondarily associated with, the holly tree.  While the feminine name is on record in the United States since the 1930s, its surge in popularity was due to Holly Golightly,  the socialite protagonist in Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), which was made into a film starring Audrey Hepburn in 1961. The name of this character is stated to be short for  Holiday (rather than a reference to the plant).
The name peaked in popularity in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, and has declined since, ranking at #380 in the United States as of 2009. 
It was popularly given in England and Wales during the 2000s, staying in the top 30 girls' names throughout 1996–2012, with a peak at rank #12 in 2002 (and dropping to rank #33 as of 2013).
A tendency to give the name to girls born on or near Christmas has also been observed. More recent eccentric spellings of the feminine name include Holli (1970s), Holleigh, Hollee, Hollye.

Surname

Birdsill Holly (1820–1894), American inventor
Alanson Holly (1810-1882), American politician
Anton Holly (1875–1932), American politician
Edward William Holly (1879–1973), American baseball player
Buddy Holly (1936–1959), stage name of American rock and roll musician, singer-songwriter Charles Hardin Holley
Lauren Holly (b. 1963), American actress
Daven Holly (b. 1982), American football player

Pseudonym
The Holly Cousins, a kayfabe family in American professional wrestling:
 Hardcore Holly (real name Robert Howard; born 1963)
 Crash Holly (real name Michael Lockwood; 1971–2003)
 Molly Holly (real name Nora Benshoof, née Greenwald; born 1977)

Given name

Feminine

Holley Rubinsky (b. 1943), Canadian-American fiction writer
Holly Black (b. 1971), American writer (Spiderwick Chronicles)
Holly Cairns (b. 1989), Irish Social Democrat politician
Holly Cole (b. 1963), Canadian jazz singer
Holly Marie Combs (b. 1973), American actress
Holly Dunn (1957–2016), American country music singer-songwriter
Holly Earl (b. 1992), British actress
Holley Fain (b. 1981), American actress
Holly Michelle Gilliam, stage name Michelle Phillips (b. 1944)
Holly Glasser, American fashion editor
Holly Golightly Smith (b. 1966), British singer and songwriter
Holly Holyoake (b. 1988), Welsh soprano
Holly Hamilton, British journalist and presenter
Holly Harris (born 2002), Australian figure skater 
Holly Hunter (b. 1958), American actress
Holly Jack, Scottish actress and acting coach
Holly Jones, American restoration ecologist and conservation biologist
Holly Krieger, American mathematician
Holly Lincoln (b. 1985), Canadian soccer forward
Holly Madison, stage name of Holly Sue Cullen (b. 1979), American model
Holley Mangold (b. 1989), American athlete
Holly Miranda (b. 1983), American singer
Holly Palance (b. 1950), American actress, daughter of veteran actor Jack Palance
Holly Robinson Peete (b. 1964), American actress, singer and author
Holly Piirainen (1983–1993), American murder victim
Holly Ross, English musician
Holly Valance (née Vukadinović, b. 1983), Australian-British actress, singer and model
Holly Walsh (b. 1980), British comedian
Holly Willoughby (b. 1981), British television presenter

Pseudonym
Holly Golightly (comics), American comic book writer and artist
Holly Sampson, American porn performer
Holly Woodlawn, born Haroldo Santiago Franceschi Rodriguez Danhakl, Puerto-Rican transgender actress

Fictional characters
Holly Golightly,  the heroine in Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), made into a film starring Audrey Hepburn in 1961.
Holly Hobbie, American children character and pseudonym of the author (Denise Holly Ulinskas)
Holly Robinson, DC Comics character and a frequent ally and sidekick of Catwoman (1987)
Holly Shumpert, a character in the sitcom The King of Queens (1998)
Holly Sullivan, a character in the movie The Wedding Singer played by Christine Taylor (1998)
Holly Gribbs, a character in the series premier of the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)
Holly J. Sinclair, a fictional character in Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001)
Holly Short, a character in the Artemis Fowl children's book series (2001)
Holly Martins, played by Joseph Cotten in Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949)
Holly (Red Dwarf), a central character on the British TV series Red Dwarf (1988) — the character is a computer and was played by a male actor in the first two seasons, but by a female actor in later series
Holly Thompson, a character in the 1988 movie They Live
Holly Kennedy, the main character in Cecila Ahern's Novel PS, I Love You (2004)
Holly Flax, a character on The Office (2005)
Holly Summers, a character from the video game No More Heroes (2007)
Holly White, is Walter White's daughter, in the series Breaking Bad (2008)
Holly Holliday, a character from Glee, played by Gwyneth Paltrow (2009)
Holly Stewart, a character in the series Rookie Blue (2010)
Holly O'Hair, the twin sister of Poppy O'Hair and the daughter of Rapunzel from the Mattel franchise Ever After High
Holly Flossa Cream, daughter of Emy Flossa Flora, Kevin Firmey Fermey, big sister of Javier Firmey June, bigger sister of Modo Fermry Joel, small sister of Rosy Flora Suns, in the movie
The magical crystal tree house, but this person is also a real person.

Masculine

Holly Broadbent Jr. (1918–2009), American orthodontist
Holly Broadbent Sr. (1894–1977), American orthodontist 
Holly One (1965–2006), Italian porn star
Holley Mims (1929–1970), American boxer
Holly B (1925–2016), Trinidad and Tobago radio and television personality
Holly Johnson (William Holly Johnson, b. 1960), English singer
Holly Campbell (1907–1979), American track and field athlete
Holly Hollingshead (1853–1926), Major League Baseball center fielder

References

Category:English given names
Category:English feminine given names
Category:Irish feminine given names
Category:Scottish feminine given names
Category:Welsh feminine given names