Was it ever a common name? Or did LM Montgomery just make it up for Anne of Green Gables?
I have never heard that name before.
I know a few Mirelles, the French version of the name.
Honestly, never having heard that name except in Anne of Green Gables, I have to ask: was it ever a common name in English Canada?
After doing a bit of searching, I have found out that Marilla is a) either a variant of Mary or Muriel, or some combination of Mary and Priscilla, b) the name of a town in New York, named after the schoolteacher Marilla Rogers.
It really, really doesn’t seem to be that popular anywhere.
Thanks Kythereia. That’s very interesting.
It certainly does not make the Top 100 names, which regrettably have become infected by the Lastname Disease, a plague that started in the United States whereby poor young girls are somehow infected with last names where their first names should be:
Madison (#4)
Taylor (#24)
Mackenzie (#26)
Makenna (#91)
Riley or Rylee (#93)
Like the other respondents, I’ve lived in Canada my whole name and have never heard the name “Marilla” outside of Anne of Green Gables.
A Google search, however, reveals that the name is indeed in use, albeit not necessarily in Canada. There is a gospel singer in the United Kingdom named Marilla Ness, a Marilla Svinicki teaching at the University of Texas, and a smattering of Marillas in blogs and such, but it seems very, very uncommon. Most hits referred either to the town in New York or the Anne of Green Gables character.
If you had asked me without mentioning Anne of Green Gables, I would have insisted that I’ve never heard of the name. However, since I did read Anne of Green Gables many years ago, I guess I’ll have to say that I don’t remember ever hearing the name (but presumably did in the context of the book and then forgot about it).
As soon as I read the thread title, I assumed you were asking in the context of *Anne of Green Gables. * I certainly do know the name in that context, however, I have never heard it otherwise.
I’d never heard the name before, to the best of my recollection. (I never read Anne of Green Gables, so not even there.)
Ditto.