Marline
Feminine
Marline is a piece of rope. Specifically it is thin two-stranded line used for binding the ends of larger ropes so they do not fray, and the tool for working it is a marlinspike, a tapered iron pin that every sailing ship carried. The fish is named after the tool, because its bill looks like one, and the name is named after none of them.
How old is the name Marline?
Marline first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Marline alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 1,100 people named Marline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marline most popular?
Marline peaked in 1935, reaching #1119 nationally. See the whole 1935 chart.
Where it comes from
From A Dutch word for binding line, borrowed into English to Marline
The story of Marline
The Dutch word means binding line, and English took it along with a great deal of other sailing vocabulary in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when Dutch shipping was the most advanced in Europe. Yacht, skipper, deck, cruise, buoy, keelhaul and a hundred others came the same way, and the reason English nautical language is so thickly Dutch is simply that English sailors learned a great deal of their trade from Dutch ones. The spike takes its name from the line it works. The fish takes its name from the spike. And the name takes its shape from an entirely separate American habit of building women's names from a front and an ending, which arrived at the same letters without any of this history behind it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
As a personal name it belongs to a family of twentieth-century American formations with no traceable ancestor: a front drawn from Mary or Marlene and an ending in wide circulation. The nautical word is unrelated, arriving in English from Dutch, and the fish is named from the word. Three separate things using the same letters, and only one of them has a documented derivation.
How the name formed
- A Dutch word for binding line, borrowed into English
- The marlinspike, and then the fish named after it
- An American women's name built from a front and an ending
- Marline arriving at the same spelling by accident
Pronouncing Marline
mar-LEEN
Two syllables with the stress at the back and the ending said as een. The nautical word is said with the stress at the front and the ending rhyming with fine, so the rope and the name do not sound alike at all.
Nicknames for Marline
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
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 193839 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1119reached in 1935
- Change vs 2014
- −14.3%6 in 2017, from 7
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.
Marlines among us
people named Marline are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Marline sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The sound is entirely familiar and needs no coaching.
- Lena and Line are two very different short forms and both stand alone.
- The back stress gives it a definite shape.
- Marlene is far commoner and this spelling will be converted into it.
- There is no meaning to give, and the nautical word is not the source.
- It is firmly of the earlier twentieth century.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Marline to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Marline? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Marline
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Marlines 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 Marline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marline in 2025?
- Marline is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Marline with classmates?
- Marline will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marline? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marline and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle