Mollie

Originated as a medieval pet form of Mary, formed by swapping the liquid consonant r for l. It arrived in the American record in the late nineteenth century as an independent birth-certificate name rather than a domestic nickname. By the First World War, the -ie ending had largely given way to the sleeker Molly, though this spelling never fully retired.

The extra vowel carries a distinct ragtime cadence. People tend to picture someone either born around the Taft administration or during the indie folk revival of the late 1990s. The name reads as slightly more antique than its -y counterpart. It inevitably prompts a lifetime of spelling out the final two letters at prescription counters.