Head to head · Girls' names
Jolene vs Paislee
#666 vs #666 in 2025 · both stepping back from its peak
Jolene and Paislee share the same spot on the 2025 charts (#666). The records cannot split them; sound and story will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Jolene leads 3 measures of 6; Paislee leads 0.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1910s: Jolene #3843, Paislee — — Jolene higher
- 1920s: Jolene #2568, Paislee — — Jolene higher
- 1930s: Jolene #727, Paislee — — Jolene higher
- 1940s: Jolene #497, Paislee — — Jolene higher
- 1950s: Jolene #404, Paislee — — Jolene higher
- 1960s: Jolene #445, Paislee — — Jolene higher
- 1970s: Jolene #407, Paislee — — Jolene higher
- 1980s: Jolene #457, Paislee — — Jolene higher
- 1990s: Jolene #1076, Paislee #13145 — Jolene higher
- 2000s: Jolene #1168, Paislee #5965 — Jolene higher
- 2010s: Jolene #708, Paislee #566 — Paislee higher
- 2020s: Jolene #538, Paislee #527 — Paislee higher
Jolene stood higher in 10 of 12 decades; Paislee has held the lead since the 2010s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Jolene | Paislee |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | #3843 | — |
| 1920s | #2568 | — |
| 1930s | #727 | — |
| 1940s | #497 | — |
| 1950s | #404 | — |
| 1960s | #445 | — |
| 1970s | #407 | — |
| 1980s | #457 | — |
| 1990s | #1076 | #13145 |
| 2000s | #1168 | #5965 |
| 2010s | #708 | #566 |
| 2020s | #538 | #527 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Jolene
Jo (from Joseph or Josephine) plus the -lene ending shared with Charlene and Darlene
Jolene is a coined name rather than a word, so it has no translation of its own. The Jo- half reaches back through Joseph and Josephine to Hebrew Yosef, 'he will add' — but that meaning belongs to the root, not to Jolene itself.
Yosef → Joseph → Josephine → Jo → Jolene
How it traveled
Jolene belongs to a family of names assembled in English-speaking America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the -lene and -leen endings were attached freely to short existing names: Charlene, Darlene, Arlene, Marlene, Jolene. It was quietly on US birth records long before it became widely recognizable, which is unusual — most names of that pattern arrived and faded within a generation.
Paislee
From Paisley, a town in Renfrewshire, Scotland
Scholars of Scottish place names divide over the town's own origin. One reading traces it to Latin basilica, 'church', reaching Scots through Middle Irish baslec — the town grew around a medieval abbey. Another looks to a Brittonic word for pasture. The name reached children by way of the place and the surname, not by way of a word for a person.
Paisley (Scottish place name) → Paisley (surname) → Paisley (given name) → Paislee
How it traveled
Paisley began as a place, grew into a Scottish surname carried out to Ulster and North America, and only lately became a first name for girls in the United States. Its worldwide fame came from cloth: the Paisley mills of Renfrewshire mass-produced shawls in the nineteenth century bearing the curved boteh motif of Kashmir and Persia, and the pattern took the town's name permanently.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Jolene
joh-LEEN
Two syllables, stress on the second. The spelling gives the sound away at first sight, in English and in most other languages.
- Jo — The oldest and most natural short form; also stands alone as a given name in its own right, and used across all generations.
- Jojo — Informal, mostly family and childhood use.
- Joey — Informal; used for both boys and girls, so it carries no clue to the full name.
- Leni — Informal, drawn from the second half rather than the first; less common in the US than in German-speaking countries.
Paislee
PAYZ-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a z sound in the middle. The respelled ending changes nothing about how it is said — it sounds the same as Paisley.
- Pais — The most natural clipping, informal and household-level; rarely written down.
- Paise — Same clip with a softer spelling; used in speech more than on paper.
- Lee — Taken from the ending; stands alone as a given name in its own right for both men and women.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Jolene if you want…
On the measures here, the records do not separate Jolene from Paislee.
Choose Paislee if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsPaislee is stepping back from its peak
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Jolene
Strengths
- Reads correctly on first sight for most English speakers — no spelling lesson required at every introduction.
- Comes with Jo already attached, a short form with centuries of independent use behind it.
- On US birth records continuously for over a century, so it is established rather than newly minted.
To consider
- The song follows the name everywhere. Expect people to sing a line of it, and know that its lyrics are a plea to another woman not to take the singer's man — a strong association, and one that is affectionate more often than not.
- Joleen and Joline both exist, so the spelling will occasionally need confirming even though the pronunciation does not.
- The name's strongest generation is now well into adulthood, so many adults will place it with their own contemporaries rather than with small children — while a child named Jolene today would likely be the only one in her school.
Paislee
Strengths
- Sound-transparent: almost anyone who sees it says it right on the first try, which is not true of every modern respelling.
- The -lee ending is already familiar to American ears through Bailee, Kaylee and Hadlee, so the shape needs no explaining.
- Anchored in something real and traceable — a Scottish town, an abbey, and the woven pattern that still carries the name worldwide.
To consider
- This is the less common of the two spellings, so expect a lifetime of gentle corrections to Paisley — on registers, coffee cups and forms. Spelling it aloud becomes a habit early.
- Respelled -lee endings are strongly tied to a recent stretch of American naming, and the chart shows it stepping back from its high point. The name will read as belonging to a particular era.
- The paisley pattern is a well-known fabric print, so some people will hear the cloth before they hear the name. That association is decorative rather than unkind, and it fades quickly with a person attached to it.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Jolene and Paislee in full.
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Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Jolene or Paislee — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Jolene or Paislee?
- They tie in 2025: Jolene ranked #666 with 423 babies; Paislee ranked #666 with 423 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Jolene or Paislee?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Jolene moved down 191 places; Paislee moved down 287 places.
- Which is the older name, Jolene or Paislee?
- Jolene entered the US charts in 1918; Paislee entered the US charts in 1990. On the American record, Jolene is the older name.
- How many people are named Jolene and Paislee?
- About 32,500 people named Jolene are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 11,000 people named Paislee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Jolenes or Paislees in the classroom?
- Jolene will almost certainly be the only one in school. Paislee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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