Carlena
Feminine · “Germanic karl”
American naming has an asymmetry worth noticing. A son could be given his father's name unchanged and called Junior; a daughter had to have it modified, so Carl gave Carlena, Robert gave Roberta and Wilhelm gave Wilhelmina.
How old is the name Carlena?
Carlena first appears in US birth records in 1910 — 115 years ago. The typical Carlena alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 1,200 people named Carlena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carlena most popular?
Carlena peaked in 1910, reaching #1935 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 8,982 places below that high. See the whole 1910 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From karl to Carlena
The story of Carlena
Naming a child for a parent was standard on both sides, but the mechanics differed. A boy took the name outright and the suffix Junior or a numeral kept the generations apart, a system America developed further than anywhere else. A girl could not, because the name was sexed, so the father's name was converted: Carl to Carlena and Carlene, Robert to Roberta, Paul to Paula, George to Georgia and Georgette, Henry to Henrietta, Wilhelm to Wilhelmina. That is why the American records hold so many feminine formations that exist nowhere else, and why they cluster in exactly the decades when honoring a father was expected. The endings were borrowed, mostly from Latin and French, because English had none of its own to use.
Meaning
Germanic karl, a free man
Carlena is a feminine formation on Carl, from Germanic karl, a free man, with the Latinate -ena ending. The name is an American formation of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the peak is 1910.
How the name formed
- karl
- Carl
- Carlena
Related forms: Carlene · Carlina · Carlina
Pronouncing Carlena
kar-LEE-nuh
Three syllables, stress on the second. Carlena and Carlina are homophones for most American speakers.
Nicknames for Carlena
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
- 1910
- Most girls named
- 198128 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1935reached in 1910
- Change vs 2023
- +60.0%8 in 2025, from 5
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.
Carlena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carlene in English — related form
- Carlina in Italian — same name
- Carlina in Spanish — same name
Carlenas among us
people named Carlena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Carlena
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
Carlena 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
Carlena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carlena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Lena and Carly are two short forms in different periods of taste.
- The Germanic element behind it is documented.
- Three syllables with a clear central stress.
- Carlene is the more common American form.
- It reads as an early twentieth-century name.
- The 1910 peak dates it closely.
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Carlena
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carlenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Carlena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Carlena in 2025?
- Carlena ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carlena?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Carlena — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carlena with classmates?
- Carlena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carlena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carlena? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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