Marcelene
Feminine · “Little Mars”
Marcelene is a feminine built on Marcel, and Marcel is a small Mars — the Roman habit of naming a child for a god and then making the name modest by shrinking it. The line behind it runs through two of the most consequential men the Roman Republic produced, both called Marcellus.
How old is the name Marcelene?
Marcelene first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Marcelene alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 400 people named Marcelene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marcelene most popular?
Marcelene peaked in 1928, reaching #1069 nationally. See the whole 1928 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Marcus to Marcelene
The story of Marcelene
The first Marcellus took Syracuse after a two-year siege, and his own account of it is soured by a single death: Archimedes, who had held the Roman fleet off with machines for years, was killed by a soldier who did not know him, despite explicit orders that he be spared. Marcellus is said to have grieved and buried him properly. The second Marcellus was a boy — Augustus's nephew, son-in-law and intended heir, who died at twenty. Virgil put him into the Aeneid as a shade glimpsed in the underworld, and when he read the passage aloud to the boy's mother she fainted. A name can carry a conqueror and a lost child at the same time.
Meaning
Little Mars
Marcellus is the diminutive of Marcus, and Marcus is built on the name of the god of war. Romans did this constantly and without embarrassment: take a god's name, add an ending that makes it small, and hand it to a child. The French Marcel and the feminines made from it — Marceline, Marcelene, Marcella — all carry the same sense unchanged.
How the name formed
- Marcus
- Marcellus
- Marcel
- Marcelene
Related forms: Marceline · Marcellina · Marcelina · Marcelina
Pronouncing Marcelene
MAR-suh-leen
Three syllables ending on a long e. Some families say mar-suh-LEEN, with the weight at the back, which is closer to the French.
Nicknames for Marcelene
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
- 1916
- Most girls named
- 192945 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1069reached in 1928
- Change vs 2023
- −14.3%6 in 2024, from 7
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.
Marcelene in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marceline in French — same name
- Marcellina in Italian — same name
- Marcelina in Spanish — same name
- Marcelina in Polish — same name
Marcelenes among us
people named Marcelene 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
Marcelene 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
- The meaning is settled and unusually vivid — a god's name made small on purpose.
- It has forms in French, Spanish, Italian and Polish that a stranger would recognize.
- It carries several short forms that sound nothing like each other.
- Marceline, Marcelline and Marcelena are all in use and hers will be written as one of them.
- It is a long name in a country that shortens everything, so the short form will do most of the work.
- The name is firmly attached to one American generation and has not yet returned.
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Marcelene
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Marcelenes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Marcelene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marcelene in 2025?
- Marcelene is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Marcelene with classmates?
- Marcelene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marcelene? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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