Arleen
Feminine
Arleen is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 12,611 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
Arleen belongs to the -ene and -een family, the most productive American naming pattern of the early twentieth century: a familiar stem, a fashionable ending, and no etymology required.
How old is the name Arleen?
Arleen first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Arleen alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 7,800 people named Arleen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arleen most popular?
Arleen peaked in 1939, reaching #303 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 5,813 places below that high. See the whole 1939 chart.
Where it comes from
From Arline to Arleen
The story of Arleen
American naming of the early twentieth century applied a small set of endings to familiar stems, and -ene, -ine and -een were among the most productive: Charlene, Darlene, Marlene, Earlene, Arlene. Arline had arrived first from a hugely successful 1843 opera, and the respellings followed. Arleen appears in the registers alongside Arlene and Arline and peaked around 1937.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No settled origin. It is read as a feminine of Arlen, an Irish surname of unrecovered meaning; as a variant of Arline, which an 1843 opera coined; and as a straightforward American construction on the Ar- and -een elements. Attempts to derive it from a Celtic word meaning 'pledge' are reconstructions after the fact.
How the name formed
- Arline
- Arlene
- Arleen
Related forms: Arlene · Arline · Arlette
Pronouncing Arleen
ar-LEEN
Two syllables, stress on the second. All three spellings are said identically.
Nicknames for Arleen
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1898
- Most girls named
- 1943353 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #303reached in 1939
- Change vs 2022
- −58.7%19 in 2025, from 46
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Arleen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Arlene in English — spelling variant
- Arline in English — spelling variant
- Arlette in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Arleens among us
people named Arleen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Arleen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Arleen
- #6116
- Arleen on the 2025 chart
- #919
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Arleen went to 19 girls in 2025, but Arlen is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 41, which makes it the 919th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,197 places above the chart.
- Arlen22
- Arleen19
About 1 girl in 39,202 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 84,593 for Arleen itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Aline test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Arleen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Aline climbed just as high around 1909, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Aline's path sketches the road Arleen is walking now.
Arleen sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Arleen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Arleen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The end stress gives it a distinct rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- It belongs to a coherent and well-documented family of American names.
- Arlie and Lena are two short forms at very different registers.
- It has no inherited meaning to offer.
- Arlene is much the commonest of the three spellings.
- It is firmly period-coded to the first half of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Arleen
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Arleens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,800 people named Arleen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Arleen?
- Arleen is one of 2 recorded spellings. Arlen is the more common one — 22 births in 2025 against 19 for Arleen.
- How popular is the name Arleen in 2025?
- Arleen ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Arleen?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Arleen — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Arleen with classmates?
- Arleen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Arleen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arleen? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Arleen and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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