Arleta
Feminine
William the Conqueror's mother was a tanner's daughter called Arlette. She never married his father, which is why he was called William the Bastard for the first forty years of his life and why the name of a girl from Falaise ended up in the ancestry of every English monarch since.
How old is the name Arleta?
Arleta first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Arleta alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 400 people named Arleta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arleta most popular?
Arleta peaked in 1932, reaching #1293 nationally. See the whole 1932 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Norman name of unsettled origin to Arleta
The story of Arleta
The chroniclers could not agree about her and were clearly uncomfortable. She was the daughter of a tanner or an undertaker in Falaise, she caught the eye of the duke, and she had two children by him without marrying; afterwards she was married off to a viscount and had more, one of whom became one of the most powerful men in England. Her son's illegitimacy was a live political problem for his whole life, used against him by rivals and shouted at him from the walls of a besieged town, and he is said to have had the hands and feet of the shouters cut off in reply.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Arlette is Norman French and its own origin is unsettled — it may be a diminutive of a Germanic name, and the medieval sources give the woman several different names, Herleva among them, which suggests the chroniclers were not sure either. The American spelling swaps the French ending for a Latin one, which was the standard treatment of French names in the nineteenth-century United States.
How the name formed
- a Norman name of unsettled origin
- a tanner's daughter in Falaise carries it
- her son conquers England in 1066
- the name survives in France as Arlette
- Arleta appears in American records in the 1900s
Related forms: Arlette · Arletta · Herleva
Pronouncing Arleta
ar-LEE-tuh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. Some families front the stress, AR-luh-tuh, which is closer to the French and rarer in America.
Nicknames for Arleta
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
- 1909
- Most girls named
- 193232 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1293reached in 1932
- Change vs 1989
- −16.7%5 in 2023, from 6
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.
Arleta in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Arlette in French — related form
- Arletta in English — spelling variant
- Herleva in Norman — related form
Arletas among us
people named Arleta are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Arleta sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Arlie and Etta are both available and belong to different centuries.
- It is read correctly at sight and is genuinely uncommon.
- It has a real Norman history behind it, and an unusually interesting woman.
- It will be heard as Arletta, Arlene and Marletta by turns.
- The origin of the Norman name is itself unsettled.
- It belongs to the first half of the last century and has had no revival.
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Arleta
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Arletas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Arleta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Arleta in 2025?
- Arleta is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Arleta with classmates?
- Arleta will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arleta? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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