Marlina
Feminine · “Hebrew Miryam and Migdal”
A marlin is named after a sailor's tool. The marlinspike is a pointed iron used for splicing rope, and the fish was called marlinspike fish for the obvious reason before the name shortened.
How old is the name Marlina?
Marlina first appears in US birth records in 1947 — 78 years ago. The typical Marlina alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 1,100 people named Marlina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marlina most popular?
Marlina peaked in 1978, reaching #2237 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 8,680 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Marlene to Marlina
The story of Marlina
Marlinspike seamanship is the old craft of working rope, and the spike itself is a tapered iron for opening the strands of a splice; the word comes from marling, the act of binding with small line. Sailors called the big billfish a marlinspike fish because the bill looked like the tool, and the name shortened to marlin in the nineteenth century. The personal name Marlin arrived separately, as a variant of Merlin or a surname, and Marlina and Marlena are feminine forms of that or of Marlene, which is itself a German contraction of two names. Three unrelated words therefore converge on nearly one spelling, and only the naming one has anything to do with the child.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew Miryam and Migdal, Mary of Magdala
Marlina is most plausibly a variant of Marlene, a German contraction of Maria Magdalene, or a feminine formation on Marlin. The fish and the tool are unrelated to the name and share the spelling by accident. The peak is 1978.
How the name formed
- Marlene
- Marlina
Related forms: Marlena · Marlene
Pronouncing Marlina
mar-LEE-nuh
Three syllables, stress on the second. Marlina and Marlena are homophones.
Nicknames for Marlina
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
- 1947
- Most girls named
- 197939 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2237reached in 1978
- Change vs 2023
- +33.3%8 in 2025, from 6
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.
Marlina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marlena in English — spelling variant
- Marlene in German — related form
Marlinas among us
people named Marlina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Marlina
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 Joyann test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Marlina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Joyann climbed just as high around 1945, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Joyann's path sketches the road Marlina is walking now.
Marlina 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
Marlina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Marlina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Lina and Marly are two short forms in different styles.
- Three syllables with a clear central stress.
- It joins two of the most widely used names in Europe.
- Marlena is the more common spelling.
- It shares a spelling with a fish and a sailor's tool.
- The 1978 peak dates it closely.
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Marlina
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Marlinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Marlina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marlina in 2025?
- Marlina ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Marlina?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Marlina — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Marlina with classmates?
- Marlina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Marlina
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 Marlina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marlina and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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