Marlei
Feminine · “pleasant wood”
Marlei is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 784 girls against 11 boys since 1880.
Marlei is a respelling of Marley, an English place name meaning the pleasant wood — and the surname has carried more cultural weight than most.
How old is the name Marlei?
Marlei first appears in US birth records in 2002 — 23 years ago. The typical Marlei is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 800 people named Marlei are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marlei most popular?
Marlei peaked in 2020, reaching #2468 nationally. Today it ranks #4172, 1,704 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Marley to Marlei
The story of Marlei
Marley names places in Kent, Devon and the West Riding, and the surname arose from them. Dickens gave it to a ghost in 1843. In the twentieth century a Jamaican musician made it internationally known, and the given name's rise in American records from the 2000s follows him. Marlei, Marlee and Marleigh are the girls' respellings.
Meaningscholars disagree
pleasant wood, boundary clearing
The English place name joins leah, a clearing, to a first element read either as maere, a boundary, or as a word for pleasant. Neither is settled, and different Marleys in England may carry different first elements.
How the name formed
- Marley
- Marlei
Related forms: Marley · Marlee
Pronouncing Marlei
MAR-lee
Two syllables, first stressed. Every spelling of the name sounds the same.
Nicknames for Marlei
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
- 2002
- Most girls named
- 202070 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2468reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- +30.8%34 in 2025, from 26
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.
Marlei in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marley in English — spelling variant
- Marlee in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Louisiana, Georgia, Texas.
Marleis among us
people named Marlei are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 47,273 born in 2025 was named Marlei
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Marlei
- #4172
- Marlei on the 2025 chart
- #317
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Marlei went to 34 girls in 2025, but Marley is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 984, which makes it the 317th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,855 places above the chart.
- Marley950
- Marlei34
About 1 girl in 1,633 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 47,273 for Marlei 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 Kyia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marlei's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kyia climbed just as high around 2002, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kyia's path sketches the road Marlei is walking now.
Marlei 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 Marlei is headed
Marlei is easing off slowly — about 32% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium 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.
Marlei beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marlei in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented English place name with a real landscape behind it.
- Read correctly on sight by most English speakers.
- Six letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- Marley is the standard spelling and will be written for her constantly.
- The musician is the strongest association and it is a large one.
- Marlei, Marlee, Marleigh and Marley are four live spellings of one name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Marlei
Feminine · #4172 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marleis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Marlei are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Marlei?
- Marlei is one of 2 recorded spellings. Marley is the more common one — 950 births in 2025 against 34 for Marlei.
- How popular is the name Marlei in 2025?
- Marlei ranks #4172 among US girl names in 2025, with 34 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marlei?
- About 1 in every 47,273 US girls born in 2025 was named Marlei — 34 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marlei with classmates?
- Marlei will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marlei
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseanna#4172 · Elida#4172 · Neila#4172 · Savina#4172 · Kendyl#4172 · Zakiya#4172 · Naisha#4172 · Ethel#4172
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marlei? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marlei and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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