Marlene
Feminine
Marlene is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 130,573 girls against 359 boys since 1880.
Marlene began as a German shortcut — two long names, Maria and Magdalene, folded into one. It traveled from German-speaking Europe into English on the strength of the screen and the sentimental soldiers' song "Lili Marleen", whose words were written by Hans Leip during the First World War. In the mouth it is two clean syllables with the weight on the second, ending in that long -een sound shared with Kathleen and Colleen.
How old is the name Marlene?
Marlene first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Marlene alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 86,500 people named Marlene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marlene most popular?
Marlene peaked in 1935, reaching #39 nationally. Today it ranks #1261, 1,222 places below that high. See the whole 1935 chart.
Where it comes from
From Maria to Marlene
The story of Marlene
German has a long habit of welding double names into single ones — Maria plus Elisabeth gives Marlies, Maria plus Helene gives Marlen, and Maria plus Magdalene gives Marlene. The compound spread through German-speaking Europe as an everyday name in its own right, then reached English-speaking countries in the early twentieth century, helped enormously by German cinema and by "Lili Marleen", the poem Hans Leip wrote as a soldier and which became one of the most widely sung songs of the Second World War on both sides of the front. American records show Marlene rising sharply through the 1930s and staying strong for a generation afterwards. It has been in continuous use ever since, quietly, and is now being picked up again by parents drawn to names from that era.
Meaning
a contraction of Maria and Magdalene
The formation is well documented in German usage. Of the two parts, Magdalene means "of Magdala", a town on the Sea of Galilee; the older name Maria itself has no agreed meaning, with "bitter", "beloved" and "drop of the sea" all proposed and none proven.
How the name formed
- Maria
- Magdalene
- Magdalena
- Marlene
Related forms: Marlene · Marlène · Marleen · Marlena · Marlena · Marlies
Pronouncing Marlene
mar-LEEN
Two syllables is the standard American reading. In German the name has three, mar-LAY-nuh, and German speakers will often say it that way regardless of spelling — worth deciding which one you want before the first day of school.
Nicknames for Marlene
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
- 1904
- Most girls named
- 19365,332 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #39reached in 1935
- Change vs 2023
- +6.0%177 in 2025, from 167
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.
Marlene in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marlene in German — same name
- Marlène in French — spelling variant
- Marleen in Dutch — spelling variant
- Marlena in Polish — related form
- Marlena in Spanish — related form
- Marlies in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Marlenes among us
people named Marlene are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,081 born in 2025 was named Marlene
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 Beatrice test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marlene's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Beatrice climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Beatrice's path sketches the road Marlene is walking now.
Marlene is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Marlene is headed
Marlene should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Marlene beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marlene in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A spelling most English speakers can read and write on first hearing, with no silent letters or ambiguous vowels.
- Several established short forms already in use — Marly, Lena, Lene — so a child has options without inventing anything.
- Works unchanged or nearly so in German, French, Dutch, Spanish and Polish, which travels well for multilingual families.
- More than a century of continuous American use, with a strong mid-century stretch and a fresh rise now.
- The name is tightly linked in many minds with one German film star of the 1930s. That is a distinguished association, but expect it to be mentioned, sometimes every time.
- Two pronunciations compete — mar-LEEN in English, mar-LAY-nuh in German — and both are correct for the name, so gentle correcting comes with the territory.
- Marlene sits close to Charlene, Darlene, Marlee and Marlena, so mishearings and near-misses are likely on the phone or in a noisy classroom.
- A child named Marlene today will meet plenty of older women who share the name and very few children who do, which some families like and others find odd.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Marlene to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Marlene
Feminine · #1261 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marlenes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 86,500 people named Marlene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marlene in 2025?
- Marlene ranks #1261 among US girl names in 2025, with 177 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marlene?
- About 1 in every 9,081 US girls born in 2025 was named Marlene — 177 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marlene with classmates?
- Marlene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marlene
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Karolina#1261 · Alba#1261 · Ariela#1261 · Heather#1261 · Isadora#1261 · Tillie#1261 · Areli#1261 · Zoie#1261
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marlene? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marlene and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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