Marleen
Feminine · “Hebrew Miryam and Migdal”
Marlene Dietrich became an American citizen in 1939, the year this spelling peaks. She had refused offers to return to Germany, and she spent the war entertaining Allied troops and broadcasting against the regime.
How old is the name Marleen?
Marleen first appears in US birth records in 1926 — 99 years ago. The typical Marleen alive today was born around 1958, making them about 67 years old. About 3,300 people named Marleen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marleen most popular?
Marleen peaked in 1939, reaching #740 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 10,177 places below that high. See the whole 1939 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Maria Magdalene to Marleen
The story of Marleen
Dietrich left Germany for Hollywood in 1930, was courted by the Nazi government to return and refused, and took American citizenship in 1939 at some personal cost: her sister remained in Germany and her films were banned there. During the war she made hundreds of appearances for troops in North Africa, Italy and France, often close to the front, and recorded songs in German for broadcast into Germany. She was later given both the Medal of Freedom and the Legion of Honour. Her name is a German contraction of the kind that also produced Annegret and Rosemarie, joining Maria to Magdalene, and its American spellings, Marleen, Marlene and Marlena, cluster around the years of her greatest visibility.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew Miryam and Migdal, Mary of Magdala
Marlene is a German contraction of Maria Magdalene, joining the front of each name. Marleen is an American spelling of it; the peak is 1939.
How the name formed
- Maria Magdalene
- Marlene
- Marleen
Related forms: Marlene · Marlena
Pronouncing Marleen
mar-LEEN
Two syllables, stress on the second. German says mar-LAY-nuh with three; the English pronunciation flattens it.
Nicknames for Marleen
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
- 1926
- Most girls named
- 1950126 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #740reached in 1939
- Change vs 2023
- −27.3%8 in 2025, from 11
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.
Marleen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marlene in German — spelling variant
- Marlena in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Marleens among us
people named Marleen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Marleen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Marleen
- #10917
- Marleen on the 2025 chart
- #910
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Marleen went to 8 girls in 2025, but Marlen is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 50, which makes it the 910th most-given girls’ name of the year — 10,007 places above the chart.
- Marlen42
- Marleen8
About 1 girl in 32,145 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 200,908 for Marleen 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 Elease test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marleen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elease climbed just as high around 1923, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elease's path sketches the road Marleen is walking now.
Marleen 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
Marleen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marleen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Marly and Lena are two short forms in different styles.
- It joins two of the most widely used names in Europe.
- Two syllables with a firm ending.
- Marlene is the standard spelling.
- German and English pronunciations differ.
- The 1939 peak dates this form precisely.
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Marleen
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marleens 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 Marleen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Marleen?
- Marleen is one of 2 recorded spellings. Marlen is the more common one — 42 births in 2025 against 8 for Marleen.
- How popular is the name Marleen in 2025?
- Marleen ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marleen?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Marleen — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marleen with classmates?
- Marleen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marleen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marleen? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marleen and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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