Earline
Feminine · “nobleman”
Earline is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 16,524 girls against 59 boys since 1880.
Earline is a rank made feminine with a French ending. The Old English eorl meant a nobleman, and it is the only English title that survived the Norman Conquest without being translated.
How old is the name Earline?
Earline first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Earline alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 6,000 people named Earline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Earline most popular?
Earline peaked in 1932, reaching #296 nationally. See the whole 1932 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From eorl to Earline
The story of Earline
Earl became a given name in nineteenth-century America, one of a set of rank-names — Earl, Duke, King, Baron — that implied no actual claim. Feminines followed in the ordinary American way, using the endings of the period: Earline, Earlene, Earla. Earline appears in the registers from the 1900s and peaked around 1930, alongside Charlene, Arlene and Darlene, which share its ending.
Meaning
nobleman, warrior
Through Earl, from the Old English eorl, 'nobleman' or 'warrior', related to the Old Norse jarl. The -ine ending is a French diminutive suffix carrying affection rather than meaning, the same one in Josephine and Ernestine.
How the name formed
- eorl
- Earl
- Earline
Related forms: Earlene · Erline · Jarl
Pronouncing Earline
ur-LEEN
Two syllables, stress on the second. The -ine ending always carries the stress in names of this family.
Nicknames for Earline
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
- 1889
- Most girls named
- 1927470 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #296reached in 1932
- Change vs 1992
- 0.0%5 in 1995, 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.
Earline in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Earlene in English — spelling variant
- Erline in English — spelling variant
- Jarl in Norse — related form
Earlines among us
people named Earline 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
Earline has already lived its whole cycle: it rose, had its era, and has stepped off the charts. The fashion question is behind it — what lies ahead is the waiting room where revivals begin, once a name's first generation has grown distant enough for it to sound fresh again.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is transparent and the word has a documented thousand-year history in English.
- The end stress gives it a distinct rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- It belongs to a coherent family of -ene and -ine names of the same period.
- Several spellings are in use and none is dominant.
- It is firmly period-coded to the first half of the twentieth century.
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Earline
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Earlines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,000 people named Earline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Earline in 2025?
- Earline is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Earline with classmates?
- Earline will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Elizabeth#17 · Emily#34 · Emma#3 · Evelyn#8 · Ella#29 · Eleanor#12 · Erin#833 · Edna#2458
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Earline? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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