If a little one in a big blonde wig rings your doorbell tonight, you won’t need to ask who she’s supposed to be.
Dolly Parton, the Tennessee country legend behind “Jolene” and “9 to 5,” is the No. 1 kids’ costume in America this Halloween. That’s according to Google’s yearly “Frightgeist” list, which ranks costumes by year-over-year search trends. This year’s version compared U.S. search interest in September 2026 with September 2025.
Dolly passed away in August at 80. So seeing her name at the top of a list made for trick-or-treaters feels a little bittersweet. It’s sweet too, though. A whole lot of families went hunting for wigs and sparkly dresses this fall because of her.
She shows up on the bigger rankings as well. Dolly is No. 12 on Google’s overall top 25 costumes.
The Tennessean newspaper looked over the kids’ list and summed it up in one line: “Everyone wants to be a country star this Halloween.”
TODAY ran through this year’s costume rankings on air, and it’s a fun way to see what families everywhere were searching for in the weeks before tonight.
TODAY walks through Google’s top Halloween costumes of 2026
Now for the two names that lead back to Dolly.
The first one sits just two spots below her on the overall list. At No. 14 is Kenny Rogers, Dolly’s longtime duet partner. Fox’s story on the rankings calls him her “fellow singer and collaborator.” For anybody who grew up with “Islands in the Stream” on the radio, that’s putting it mildly. Kenny passed away in 2020 at 81.
It’s hard not to smile at the two of them landing so close together on a Halloween list, all these years later.
If you want to remember why people loved them as a pair, watch them sing their famous duet side by side at the 1983 CMA Awards.
Dolly and Kenny sing “Islands in the Stream” live in 1983
The second name is on the kids’ list, at No. 6. It’s Hannah Montana.
That’s the Disney Channel character played by Miley Cyrus, who happens to be Dolly’s real-life goddaughter. Miley’s father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, toured with Dolly in the 1990s. He asked her to be godmother before Miley was even born.
So when Miley had her own show, she wanted Dolly on it. Dolly once explained how the part came about: “[Miley] said ‘I want my Aunt Dolly on here… I want her on the show.'”
And that’s exactly who she played. On “Hannah Montana,” Dolly was Aunt Dolly, a family friend and the godmother of Miley’s character, Miley Stewart. She guest starred three times before the show ended in 2011.
“I’ve always been proud of Miley, she is so talented,” Dolly said.
Disney Channel has posted one of Aunt Dolly’s visits to the show, so you can see the two of them together in character.
Aunt Dolly drops in on “Hannah Montana”
After Dolly passed away in August, Miley wrote about her godmother on Instagram. “I have an angel by my side. I always have,” she said. She added, “I will always love her and want to make her proud.”
Keep an eye on your front porch tonight. Between the blonde wigs and the Hannah Montana outfits, Dolly’s people are going to be showing up at a lot of doors.