Joleen
Feminine
Joleen has a date and a cause. Dolly Parton released Jolene in October 1973, and the American birth records for every spelling of the name climb immediately afterwards and peak in 1974. Very few names in the modern record respond that sharply to a single song, and this one is among the cleanest examples of the effect that exists.
How old is the name Joleen?
Joleen first appears in US birth records in 1925 — 100 years ago. The typical Joleen alive today was born around 1974, making them about 51 years old. About 5,900 people named Joleen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Joleen most popular?
Joleen peaked in 1974, reaching #754 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 4,968 places below that high. See the whole 1974 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Jo to Joleen
Our story of Joleen
The -lene ending had its own decade before Jolene arrived. Marlene came from Marlene Dietrich in the 1930s; Charlene and Darlene followed in the 1940s and 1950s; Arlene, Raylene and Sharlene filled in around them. By the 1960s the ending was fully available, and Jolene existed in small numbers as an obvious combination — Jo, already a standing short form, plus the fashionable tail. Then a song about a woman with flaming locks of auburn hair took the name to the top of the country charts, and a name that had been quietly ordinary became, for about three years, one that thousands of American parents chose deliberately. The spellings divided immediately: Jolene, Joleen, Jolean, Joline. Joleen is the one that writes the vowel the way American English actually says it, and that plainness is why it looks less like a song title than the original does.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Not established. Jolene is a twentieth-century American formation, most plausibly Jo — from Joan, Josephine or Joanne — with the -lene ending that Marlene, Charlene and Darlene had made fashionable. Some sources offer a derivation from a French word for pretty, but that word is jolie and it does not produce this ending. The Jo- element does have a real ancestry, through Josephine and ultimately Hebrew Yosef, 'he will add'. The compound itself does not.
How the name formed
- Jo
- Marlene
- Jolene
- Joleen
Related forms: Jolene · Joline
Pronouncing Joleen
joh-LEEN
Two syllables, stress at the end, with a long e. The -een spelling makes that vowel unambiguous, which the -ene spelling does not. There is no competing saying.
Nicknames for Joleen
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
- 1925
- Most girls named
- 1974187 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #754reached in 1974
- Change vs 2023
- −22.2%21 in 2025, from 27
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.
Joleen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jolene in English — spelling variant
- Joline in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Joleens among us
people named Joleen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Joleen
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 Irine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Joleen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Irine climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Irine's path sketches the road Joleen is walking now.
Joleen 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
Joleen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Joleen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling removes all doubt about the vowel, unlike the more common Jolene.
- Jo and Jojo are ready-made short forms with a long history.
- The sound is familiar to almost every English speaker over forty.
- The song is unavoidable, and adults will mention it.
- Jolene is far the more common spelling and hers will be written that way.
- The name's curve is tightly 1970s, which dates a bearer closely.
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What they receive
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Joleen
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Joleens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,900 people named Joleen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Joleen in 2025?
- Joleen ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Joleen?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Joleen — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Joleen with classmates?
- Joleen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Joleen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Joleen? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Joleen and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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