Jolene
Feminine
Jolene is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 36,224 girls against 12 boys since 1880.
Jolene is an American-made name, built the way Charlene, Darlene and Marlene were built: a familiar first syllable given a soft, ringing ending. It was already turning up on birth records for decades before Dolly Parton wrote the song that made it famous, and it moves easily in the mouth — two beats, the stress landing on that long final vowel.
How old is the name Jolene?
Jolene first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Jolene alive today was born around 1977, making them about 48 years old. About 32,500 people named Jolene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jolene most popular?
Jolene peaked in 1974, reaching #245 nationally. Today it ranks #666, 421 places below that high. See the whole 1974 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yosef to Jolene
The story of Jolene
Jolene belongs to a family of names assembled in English-speaking America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the -lene and -leen endings were attached freely to short existing names: Charlene, Darlene, Arlene, Marlene, Jolene. It was quietly on US birth records long before it became widely recognizable, which is unusual — most names of that pattern arrived and faded within a generation. Dolly Parton's 1973 song 'Jolene', addressed to a woman with flaming locks of auburn hair, carried the name far beyond American birth certificates and has kept it in circulation through decades of cover versions. The name is now known almost everywhere English-language music is heard, while remaining uncommon as an actual name for a child.
Meaning
Jo (from Joseph or Josephine) plus the -lene ending shared with Charlene and Darlene
Jolene is a coined name rather than a word, so it has no translation of its own. The Jo- half reaches back through Joseph and Josephine to Hebrew Yosef, 'he will add' — but that meaning belongs to the root, not to Jolene itself.
How the name formed
- Yosef
- Joseph
- Josephine
- Jo
- Jolene
Related forms: Joleen · Joline · Jolina · Jolien
Pronouncing Jolene
joh-LEEN
Two syllables, stress on the second. The spelling gives the sound away at first sight, in English and in most other languages.
Nicknames for Jolene
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 1973 — Dolly Parton's "Jolene"
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 1975998 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #245reached in 1974
- Change vs 2023
- −23.8%423 in 2025, from 555
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.
Jolene in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Joleen in English — spelling variant
- Joline in English — spelling variant
- Jolina in German — related form
- Jolien in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Jolenes among us
people named Jolene are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,800 born in 2025 was named Jolene
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 Gale test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jolene's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gale climbed just as high around 1957, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gale's path sketches the road Jolene is walking now.
Jolene 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 Jolene is headed
Jolene should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Jolene beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jolene in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads correctly on first sight for most English speakers — no spelling lesson required at every introduction.
- Comes with Jo already attached, a short form with centuries of independent use behind it.
- On US birth records continuously for over a century, so it is established rather than newly minted.
- Widely recognized through Dolly Parton's song while staying rare as an actual name — familiar without being repeated in a classroom.
- The song follows the name everywhere. Expect people to sing a line of it, and know that its lyrics are a plea to another woman not to take the singer's man — a strong association, and one that is affectionate more often than not.
- Joleen and Joline both exist, so the spelling will occasionally need confirming even though the pronunciation does not.
- The name's strongest generation is now well into adulthood, so many adults will place it with their own contemporaries rather than with small children — while a child named Jolene today would likely be the only one in her school.
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What they receive
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Jolene
Feminine · #666 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jolenes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 32,500 people named Jolene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jolene in 2025?
- Jolene ranks #666 among US girl names in 2025, with 423 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jolene?
- About 1 in every 3,800 US girls born in 2025 was named Jolene — 423 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jolene with classmates?
- Jolene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Jolene's chart?
- Jolene climbed after 1973 — Dolly Parton's "Jolene".
Ranked beside Jolene
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Marisol#666 · Oakleigh#666 · Paislee#666 · Jessica#665 · Isabela#664 · Yaretzi#670 · Legacy#662 · Myra#662
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jolene? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jolene and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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