Given name & surname

Bly

“a tall child”

Bly is used as a given name and a surname. One Native American interpretation is “a tall child.”

Meaning & origin

What it means

One Native American interpretation is “a tall child.”

Where it comes from

An origin associated with this spelling is Native American.

How it developed

From Old English bliþe (“friendly, gentle”).

Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The story

Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2001. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.

From dated birth records

Bly through the years

Babies since 1880
60
50 boys · 10 girls
Most popular year
2002
12 babies
2025
0
Outside the ranked list
2021–25 vs 2016–20
—
Too few births to compare
Boys Girls
024682025Highest share 2002Boys 0.0Girls 0.0
Bly in U.S. Social Security birth records, 2001–2025, per million births of each sex. Years with fewer than five births for a sex are not published and appear as zero. Use the arrow keys to step through years.

By the numbers

The most recent published U.S. birth count for girls is 5 in 2021. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 191 as a first name in 2020; 4,573 as a surname in 2020.

From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.

Bly’s family of names

In Swedish usage, Bly has a later derivative in Lyijynen. Bly has a related form in Blythe.

Walk Bly’s family in the name graph

BlyBlytheLyijynen

Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.

Hover or tab through the constellation to see how each name is related. Bigger dots are names more people in the U.S. share.

Nicknames & forms 1

Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.

Across languages 1

Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.

Similar names

If you love Bly, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.

Native American · Modern

Nodin

“of the wind”

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Native American · Modern

Tyee

“a great chief”

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Native American · Modern

Dyami

“resembling an eagle”

16Very rareEasing

>99% boys

Native American · Modern

Tucson

“from the city in Arizona”

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Native American · Modern

Ukiah

“from the deep valley”

16Very rareSteady

>99% boys

Native American · Modern

Tokala

“resembling a fox”

11Very rare

>99% boys

Native American · Modern

Shiye

“our son”

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Native American · Modern

Jolon

“from the valley of dead oak trees”

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Sibling ideas

Names that share Bly’s feel without repeating its first letter or rhyming with it.

A brother for Bly