Arlett
Feminine · “Not settled”
Arlett is the trimmed-down spelling of French Arlette, a name carried since the eleventh century by the Norman woman remembered in French tradition as Arlette, mother of William the Conqueror. Dropping the final e gives it a crisper finish while keeping the two-beat swing — a soft first syllable, then the stress landing on -lett. It travels easily between English and Spanish, which is much of the reason it has been turning up on both sides of the border.
How old is the name Arlett?
Arlett first appears in US birth records in 1986 — 39 years ago. The typical Arlett is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,400 people named Arlett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arlett most popular?
Arlett peaked in 2025, reaching #1085 nationally. Today it ranks #1085, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Arlett appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Herleva to Arlett
The story of Arlett
The line begins with Herleva, a Germanic name recorded in eleventh-century Normandy, borne by the mother of William the Conqueror; French writers later softened it to Arlette. Arlette held on quietly in France for centuries and had a real run there in the twentieth. From French it passed into Spanish-speaking use, where the shorter spellings Arlet and Arlett took hold, and it is those forms that reached the United States — which fits the states where Arlett is strongest today. So the name arrived here twice removed: Norman by birth, French by shape, Spanish by the route it took.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not settled; the older form Herleva is usually read through Germanic elements meaning 'army'
Arlett descends from Arlette, the French form of the Old Germanic Herleva. One reading takes the first part from harja, 'army', with the second element read as laiba, roughly 'heir' or 'what remains'. Another treats Arlette simply as a French diminutive built with the -ette ending, in which case the meaning belongs to a root now lost. Neither reading has won.
How the name formed
- Herleva
- Arlette
- Arlet
- Arlett
Related forms: Arlette · Arlet · Arletta · Arleta · Herleva
Pronouncing Arlett
ar-LET
Two syllables, stress on the second, rhyming with the end of 'omelette'. Spanish and English speakers land on much the same sound, which is unusual and useful. Some families say AR-let, front-stressed.
Nicknames for Arlett
High
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
- 1986
- Most girls named
- 2025222 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1085reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +86.6%222 in 2025, from 119
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.
Arlett in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Arlette in French — same name
- Arlet in Spanish — spelling variant
- Arletta in Italian — related form
- Arleta in Polish — related form
- Herleva in Latin (medieval) — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Arletts among us
people named Arlett are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,240 born in 2025 was named Arlett
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Arlett
- #1085
- Arlett on the 2025 chart
- #424
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Arlett went to 222 girls in 2025, but Arlet is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 672, which makes it the 424th most-given girls’ name of the year — 661 places above the chart.
- Arlet450
- Arlett222
About 1 girl in 2,392 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 7,240 for Arlett 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 Natali test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Arlett's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Natali climbed just as high around 2005, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Natali's path sketches the road Arlett is walking now.
Arlett is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Arlett is headed
Arlett looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 37% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Arlett beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Arlett in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works unchanged in English and Spanish, with the same two-syllable rhythm in both.
- Backed by a documented French form, Arlette, with a record running back to eleventh-century Normandy.
- Short and phonetic: once seen, it is read correctly by most people on the first try.
- Several ready-made short forms — Ari, Arlie, Letty — that already stand on their own as names.
- Three spellings compete: Arlette, Arlet and Arlett. Expect to spell it aloud often, and expect the French -ette to be the version strangers reach for by default.
- The name's wave here is very recent, so an Arlett will rarely meet an adult with the name and will most likely be the only one in her school.
- Arlett and Arlette look nearly identical on paper but the trimmed spelling is the rarer of the two; forms, teachers and relatives may quietly add the e back.
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What they receive
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Arlett
Feminine · #1085 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Arletts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Arlett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Arlett?
- Arlett is one of 2 recorded spellings. Arlet is the more common one — 450 births in 2025 against 222 for Arlett.
- How popular is the name Arlett in 2025?
- Arlett ranks #1085 among US girl names in 2025, with 222 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Arlett?
- About 1 in every 7,240 US girls born in 2025 was named Arlett — 222 in all.
- Will my child share the name Arlett with classmates?
- Arlett will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Arlett
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Saoirse#1085 · Ira#1085 · Joan#1085 · Laramie#1085 · Susan#1085 · Savanna#1085 · Aira#1082 · Malayah#1082
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arlett? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Arlett and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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