Marlee
Feminine · “clearing or meadow”
Marlee is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 17,654 girls against 269 boys since 1880.
Marlee is the phonetic spelling of Marley, an old English surname built from lēah, the Old English word for a clearing or meadow — the same syllable that ends Ashley, Bradley and Hadley. It has been on American records for more than a century, quietly at first, then rising with the whole family of -lee endings. Said aloud it is two clean beats, MAR-lee, with nothing in it for anyone to stumble over.
How old is the name Marlee?
Marlee first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Marlee alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 17,500 people named Marlee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marlee most popular?
Marlee peaked in 2008, reaching #367 nationally. Today it ranks #536, 169 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Where it comes from
From lēah (Old English: clearing, meadow) to Marlee
The story of Marlee
The Marley line begins in English geography — villages and estates named for a clearing, recorded in Old English as lēah, with a first element that meant either a boundary or the marten that lived in the wood. Those place names became surnames, surnames crossed to America, and by the twentieth century American parents were turning them into first names for daughters, respelled to match the way they were already saying them: Marley became Marlee. A second road runs in from German, where Marlene contracted Maria and Magdalene into one name and gave English the short forms Marla and Marlee. Both roads arrive at the same two syllables, which is part of why the spelling took hold on its own rather than staying a variant.
Meaningscholars disagree
clearing or meadow — with the first syllable read either as 'boundary' or 'marten'
As a respelling of the English surname Marley, the second element is Old English lēah, 'clearing, meadow, wood', which is settled. The first is not: place-name scholars read it as either gemǣre, 'boundary', or mearth, 'marten'. A separate route reaches the same sound through Marlene, itself a German blend of Maria and Magdalene, which gave English Marla and Marlee as well.
How the name formed
- lēahOld English: clearing, meadow
- MarleyEnglish place name, then surname
- Marlee
Related forms: Marley · Marleigh · Marlene · Marlène · Marla · Marly
Pronouncing Marlee
MAR-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. The spelling gives the pronunciation away completely, which is most of the point of the -lee ending.
Nicknames for Marlee
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
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 2008890 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #367reached in 2008
- Change vs 2023
- −7.2%564 in 2025, from 608
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.
Marlee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marley in English — spelling variant
- Marleigh in English — spelling variant
- Marlene in German — related form
- Marlène in French — related form
- Marla in English — related form
- Marly in Dutch — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, California.
Marlees among us
people named Marlee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,850 born in 2025 was named Marlee
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 Ester test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marlee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ester climbed just as high around 1905, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ester's path sketches the road Marlee is walking now.
Marlee 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 Marlee is headed
Marlee should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Marlee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marlee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds: a reader who has never seen it will still say it correctly on the first try.
- Sits inside a large, familiar sound family — Marley, Harley, Hailey, Marlene — so it registers as a known name rather than a new one.
- On US records continuously for over a century, so it has history behind it as well as recent use.
- Reaches the same sound by two real routes, English surname and German Marlene, giving it depth of ancestry.
- Short enough to need no nickname, but yields Mar and Marls if one is wanted.
- Marlee, Marley and Marleigh all sound identical, so expect to spell it aloud fairly often — and expect forms and class lists to guess wrong now and then.
- The Marley sound carries strong outside associations for many American ears, from the musician's surname to the dog in a well-known book and film. Nothing damaging, but the connection tends to come up.
- The -lee ending rose as a group and is easing back as a group, which can date a name to a stretch of years. That is only a drawback if you mind it; plenty of names carry a decade with them and wear it well.
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What they receive
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Marlee
Feminine · #536 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marlees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 17,500 people named Marlee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marlee in 2025?
- Marlee ranks #536 among US girl names in 2025, with 564 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marlee?
- About 1 in every 2,850 US girls born in 2025 was named Marlee — 564 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marlee with classmates?
- Marlee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marlee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jazlyn#537 · Oaklee#535 · Zahra#538 · Lenora#538 · Daleyza#538 · Phoenix#533 · Nellie#533 · Cassidy#541
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marlee? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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