The first name of country singer Dolly Parton was Dolly. She was born Dolly Rebecca Parton on January 19, 1946, in Sevier County, Tennessee.
Parton grew up in a large, poor family in the Great Smoky Mountains and began performing as a child. Her distinctive first name came from the name of her maternal great-great-grandmother, which was also Dolly. She moved to Nashville after finishing high school and signed with Monument Records in 1965.
Parton became a singer, songwriter, musician, actor, author, and businesswoman. Her compositions include ‘Jolene’, ‘Coat of Many Colors’, and ‘I Will Always Love You’, the last of which became a major hit for Whitney Houston decades later. People sometimes assume Dolly is a nickname for Dorothy, but Parton’s birth name is officially Dolly Rebecca Parton. Her songwriting and charitable work, including the Imagination Library, made her one of the most recognizable figures in American popular culture.