Darleen
Feminine · “English darling”
Darling is Old English deorling, dear plus -ling, a diminutive suffix English has almost entirely lost. It survives in duckling, gosling, yearling and sapling, and it soured in hireling, underling and weakling, where the small thing became a contemptible one.
How old is the name Darleen?
Darleen first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Darleen alive today was born around 1950, making them about 75 years old. About 5,500 people named Darleen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Darleen most popular?
Darleen peaked in 1943, reaching #493 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 8,964 places below that high. See the whole 1943 chart.
Where it comes from
From deorling to Darleen
The story of Darleen
The -ling suffix made small or associated things, and it did two quite different jobs. On animals it stayed neutral and productive: duckling, gosling, nestling, yearling, fledgling, and by extension sapling and seedling. On people it turned sour almost every time: hireling, underling, weakling, changeling, foundling, worldling. The pattern is common across languages, where a diminutive applied to an adult reads as belittling, and it is why English can call a young duck a duckling affectionately and an employee a hireling only as an insult. Darling escaped because it fossilized early as a term of address and stopped being parsed at all; almost nobody hearing it registers the dear or the suffix. As a given name it is one of a set of English word-names that rose sharply in the 1930s and 1940s, alongside Charlene, Marlene and Arlene, all sharing the same fashionable ending.
Meaning
English darling, a beloved person
Darleen is a spelling of Darlene, formed from the English word darling with the -ene ending common in American women's names of the period. Darling is Old English deorling, from deore, dear, plus the diminutive -ling. The name is a twentieth-century American formation with no older history. The peak is 1943.
How the name formed
- deorling
- darling
- Darlene
- Darleen
Related forms: Darlene · Darline
Pronouncing Darleen
dar-LEEN
Two syllables, stress on the second. Darleen and Darlene are homophones; the -ene spelling is much the commoner of the two.
Nicknames for Darleen
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
- 1914
- Most girls named
- 1943227 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #493reached in 1943
- Change vs 2023
- +25.0%10 in 2025, from 8
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.
Darleen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Darlene in English — spelling variant
- Darline in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Darleens among us
people named Darleen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Darleen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Roma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Darleen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Roma climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Roma's path sketches the road Darleen is walking now.
Darleen 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
Darleen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Darleen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The word behind it is warm and needs no explanation.
- Two syllables with a firm final beat.
- It is easy to say and to spell out.
- Darlene is far commoner and reads as the correct spelling.
- The 1943 peak places it firmly in the war years.
- It is closely tied to one decade of American fashion.
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What they receive
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Darleen
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Darleens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,500 people named Darleen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Darleen in 2025?
- Darleen ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Darleen?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Darleen — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Darleen with classmates?
- Darleen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Darleen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Darleen? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Darleen and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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