Karlene
Feminine · “free man”
Karlene is built the way a great many American women's names were built, from a man's name with a soft ending added. The K is the interesting part: it says which side of the family the name came down, because Karl is how German and Scandinavian write what France and England write Charles.
How old is the name Karlene?
Karlene first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Karlene alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 3,300 people named Karlene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karlene most popular?
Karlene peaked in 1939, reaching #785 nationally. See the whole 1939 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From karl to Karlene
The story of Karlene
Karl and Charles are one name in two mouths: the northern languages kept the hard k, French softened it to ch, and England took the French form. Immigrant families brought Karl to America with its k intact, and wherever a name in this family is written with a k the line behind it is usually German, Norwegian, Swedish or Danish rather than English. Carlene is the same name arriving by the French road. There is also a second way to read the ending, and it is not a joke: Lene is a standing name in Denmark and Norway, short for Helene and Magdalene, so Karlene can be heard as two real names joined rather than one name lengthened.
Meaning
free man
The root is the Old High German karl, a man of no particular rank. The ending is a later addition, styled after French, and carries no meaning of its own.
How the name formed
- karl
- Karl
- Karlene
Related forms: Carlene · Karla · Carla · Karoline · Karolina
Pronouncing Karlene
kar-LEEN
Two syllables with the weight at the back. Front-weighted KAR-leen is heard too, particularly in the American Midwest, and neither is a correction of the other.
Nicknames for Karlene
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
- 1913
- Most girls named
- 196299 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #785reached in 1939
- Change vs 2022
- +40.0%7 in 2024, 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.
Karlene in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carlene in English — spelling variant
- Karla in German — related form
- Carla in Italian — related form
- Karoline in Danish — related form
- Karolina in Polish — related form
Karlenes among us
people named Karlene 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
Karlene sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Both halves are familiar, so the name is read correctly on first sight even by people who have never met it.
- It carries several ready short forms, Karly, Lena and Kay, which sound nothing like one another.
- The k spelling marks a northern European line and is a small piece of family history in itself.
- Karlene, Carlene, Karleen and Charlene are all in the record and are mistaken for one another constantly.
- It reads as a name belonging to one particular American generation.
- The ending is out of fashion, which cuts both ways: it dates the name and it keeps it uncommon.
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Karlene
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Karlenes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Karlene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Karlene in 2025?
- Karlene is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Karlene with classmates?
- Karlene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Karen#1279 · Kimberly#302 · Kathleen#1150 · Katherine#186 · Kelly#851 · Kathryn#729 · Kayla#364 · Kathy#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karlene? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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