Arlie
Feminine · “eagle clearing”
Arlie is given to both — 2,585 girls and 6,712 boys since 1880. See Arlie as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Arlie is an old American name that has been given to sons and daughters alike, and it has two possible parents: an English place-name with eagles in it, and the Arlene family, which was itself made rather than inherited.
How old is the name Arlie?
Arlie first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Arlie alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 1,100 people named Arlie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arlie most popular?
Arlie peaked in 1887, reaching #608 nationally. Today it ranks #2778, 2,170 places below that high. See the whole 1887 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Arlie
Two things happened at roughly the same time. English surnames taken from -ley places were crossing into American given names, which would put Arlie among Ashley, Shirley and Beverley. And American families were making short, warm names out of pleasant sounds — Arlie, Verlie, Orlie, Merlie — with an -ie ending that suited both sexes. The name shows up in the American record early and steadily, and it belongs to a period when a name did not need a documented pedigree to be entirely respectable.
Meaningscholars disagree
eagle clearing — if the Arley reading holds
Arley is a genuine English place-name, found in Warwickshire, Cheshire and Worcestershire, and it is generally read as earn leah, 'eagle clearing', or as ar leah, a boundary clearing. That much is documented. Whether the American Arlie descends from it is not: the name also sits squarely among Arline, Arlene and Arlin, a cluster of nineteenth-century American formations with no established source. Both roads are plausible and neither is proven.
Pronouncing Arlie
AR-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. There is no ambiguity in the sound at all; the name has never had a pronunciation problem, only a spelling one.
Nicknames for Arlie
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
- 1883
- Most girls named
- 202372 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #608reached in 1887
- Change vs 2023
- −15.3%61 in 2025, from 72
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.
Arlie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Arley in English — spelling variant
- Arlene in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Arlies among us
people named Arlie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 26,349 born in 2025 was named Arlie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Arlie 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
Where Arlie is headed
Arlie looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 28% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Arlie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Arlie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Said correctly by everyone on sight, with nothing silent and nothing unusual.
- Used for both sexes historically, so it carries no strong expectation.
- A long and continuous American record rather than a recent construction.
- Arlie, Arley and Arly are all in use, so the spelling will be asked for.
- Its origin is genuinely unsettled, so any single meaning offered is a choice among guesses.
- It carries a strong sense of an older American generation, which reads as warm or dated depending on the listener.
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What they receive
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Arlie
Feminine · #2778 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Arlies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Arlie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Arlie in 2025?
- Arlie ranks #2778 among US girl names in 2025, with 61 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Arlie?
- About 1 in every 26,349 US girls born in 2025 was named Arlie — 61 in all.
- Will my child share the name Arlie with classmates?
- Arlie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Arlie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eugenia#2778 · Amour#2778 · Wynona#2778 · Joie#2778 · Bennie#2778 · Havyn#2778 · Wisdom#2778 · Aela#2778
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arlie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Arlie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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