Marlaina
Feminine · “Hebrew Miryam and Migdal”
Lili Marleen was the only song of the Second World War that both sides played. Radio Belgrade broadcast it nightly from 1941, German and British soldiers listened to the same record across the same desert, and the name went round the world with it.
How old is the name Marlaina?
Marlaina first appears in US birth records in 1953 — 72 years ago. The typical Marlaina alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 1,400 people named Marlaina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marlaina most popular?
Marlaina peaked in 1979, reaching #2147 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 7,960 places below that high. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Maria Magdalene to Marlaina
The story of Marlaina
The song was written as a poem in 1915, set to music in 1938 and recorded by Lale Andersen, and it did nothing until a German forces station in occupied Belgrade began closing its evening broadcast with it in 1941. Within months it was being listened to by soldiers on both sides across North Africa and the Mediterranean; the British authorities eventually commissioned an English version rather than fight it. Marlene Dietrich, who had left Germany and was performing for Allied troops, made it hers from 1944 and sang it for the rest of her life. Her own name is a contraction, Maria plus Magdalene, made in the German fashion of joining two names at the seam. Marlena and Marlaina are the American descendants, three steps from a poem written by a soldier in the first war.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew Miryam and Migdal, Mary of Magdala
Marlene is a German contraction of Maria Magdalene, joining the front of each name. Marlaina is an American respelling of Marlena, the Latinate form. Miryam's own meaning is genuinely unsettled. The peak of this spelling is 1979.
How the name formed
- Maria Magdalene
- Marlene
- Marlena
- Marlaina
Related forms: Marlene · Marlena · Marlena
Pronouncing Marlaina
mar-LAY-nuh
Three syllables, stress on the second. The German Marlene is mar-LAY-nuh too, though English speakers often say mar-LEEN.
Nicknames for Marlaina
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
- 1953
- Most girls named
- 198647 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2147reached in 1979
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%9 in 2025, from 9
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.
Marlaina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marlene in German — related form
- Marlena in English — spelling variant
- Marlena in Italian — same name
Marlainas among us
people named Marlaina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Marlaina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Marlaina
- #10107
- Marlaina on the 2025 chart
- #941
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Marlaina went to 9 girls in 2025, but Marlayna is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 19, which makes it the 941st most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,166 places above the chart.
- Marlayna10
- Marlaina9
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 178,585 for Marlaina itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Selia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marlaina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Selia climbed just as high around 1945, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Selia's path sketches the road Marlaina is walking now.
Marlaina 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
Marlaina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marlaina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Lena and Marly are two short forms in different styles.
- Three syllables with a strong central stress.
- It joins two of the most widely used names in Europe.
- Marlena and Marlene are both more common.
- Two pronunciations of the middle syllable exist in English.
- The 1979 peak dates this spelling.
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Marlaina
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marlainas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Marlaina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Marlaina?
- Marlaina is one of 2 recorded spellings. Marlayna is the more common one — 10 births in 2025 against 9 for Marlaina.
- How popular is the name Marlaina in 2025?
- Marlaina ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marlaina?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Marlaina — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marlaina with classmates?
- Marlaina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marlaina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marlaina? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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