Meaning and background
The story behind Polly
Polly is an old English personal name, not simply a modern invention based on the word 'parrot'. The onomastic reference identifies it as a medieval variant of Molly, itself belonging to the wider Mary name family, but says the original shift from M to P is unexplained. In British English its usual pronunciation is POL-ee. That history gives the name substance without attaching a speculative translation to its spelling.
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About Polly
Recorded as a dog’s name
Polly appears in 25 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/pɑli/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/pɑli/ · primary stress on syllable 1P AA1 L IY0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
Gender association: NYC licence-period records. Any dog can use this name.
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.