polly

Polly is primarily a feminine given name, often a diminutive form of Mary and sometimes of Pollyanna. It has been used in English-speaking countries for centuries and remains in use as a stand-alone given name as well as a nickname. In onomastics and popular usage, Polly frequently appears as a character name in literature, film, and television, sometimes alongside its longer forms. A well-known example is Pollyanna, the heroine of Eleanor H. Porter’s 1913 novel, which popularized the name for a certain era, though the standalone given name Polly also appears in many works.

In common English usage, Polly is also a conventional name for a parrot in general discourse, most famously associated with the refrain Polly wants a cracker. The phrase has entered folklore and is sometimes used to signify generic talk or a stock parrot image in media and cartoons.

In modern technology, Polly refers to Amazon Polly, a cloud-based service by Amazon Web Services that converts text into spoken audio using neural and standard voices, supporting multiple languages and lifelike speech. The name Polly is also used as a brand name or product designation in various contexts, including small toys and educational materials, though such uses are diverse and not standardized.

Notable people with the given name include actresses, writers, and singers, though Polly is frequently a nickname rather than a legal name. The term Polly thus functions as a cross-domain label across names, culture, and technology.