Maylene
Feminine · “Contested”
Maylene is May joined to the -lene ending, and both were doing steady work in American naming in the 1930s. May is a month, a flower, and a short form of Mary and Margaret all at once, which gives the name three possible parents before the ending is added.
How old is the name Maylene?
Maylene first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Maylene alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 1,100 people named Maylene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maylene most popular?
Maylene peaked in 1937, reaching #2570 nationally. Today it ranks #5554, 2,984 places below that high. See the whole 1937 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From May to Maylene
Our story of Maylene
The -lene names are worth dating precisely because they look older than they are. Arlene, Darlene, Charlene, Marlene, Maylene, Jolene and Raylene are all twentieth-century American formations; none of them existed before about 1900 and most peaked between the 1930s and the 1960s. What they were built on is a French feminine ending that English had inherited in Caroline and Pauline, detached and made productive. What is notable about the group is how completely it stopped: after about 1970 no new -lene name appears in the American top thousand for thirty years, and the ending was dormant until Hispanic-American naming picked it up again in the 1990s. Maylene's 1937 peak sits early in the first wave.
Meaningscholars disagree
Contested; May has several sources
May is the month, named for the Roman goddess Maia; it is also a short form of Mary, whose meaning is unsettled, and of Margaret, from Greek margarites, a pearl. The -lene ending is a twentieth-century American suffix drawn from the French feminine -line that gave Caroline and Pauline. The compound has no meaning of its own.
How the name formed
- May
- Maylene
Pronouncing Maylene
MAY-leen
Two syllables, with the main stress on the first and a strong secondary on the second. Some families put the weight on the second, may-LEEN.
Nicknames for Maylene
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
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 201241 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2570reached in 1937
- Change vs 2023
- +46.7%22 in 2025, from 15
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.
Maylene in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Maylenes among us
people named Maylene are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was named Maylene
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maylene
- #5554
- Maylene on the 2025 chart
- #932
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maylene went to 22 girls in 2025, but Mailene is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 28, which makes it the 932nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,622 places above the chart.
- Maylene22
- Mailene6
About 1 girl in 57,402 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 73,058 for Maylene 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 Anola test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maylene's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Anola climbed just as high around 1917, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Anola's path sketches the road Maylene is walking now.
Maylene 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
Maylene beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maylene in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- May is a complete and pleasant name available as a short form.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- Seven letters and two syllables keep it manageable.
- Maylene, Maylin, Maelynn and Maeline are close enough to be confused.
- The -lene ending is strongly dated to the mid-twentieth century.
- There is no single meaning behind the compound.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Maylene
Feminine · #5554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maylenes 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 Maylene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maylene?
- Maylene is the most-used spelling in US records — 22 of the 28 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Mailene.
- How popular is the name Maylene in 2025?
- Maylene ranks #5554 among US girl names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maylene?
- About 1 in every 73,058 US girls born in 2025 was named Maylene — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maylene with classmates?
- Maylene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maylene
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eda#5554 · Phebe#5554 · Felicia#5554 · Audie#5554 · Maryellen#5554 · Warren#5554 · Ruthann#5554 · Nettie#5554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maylene? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maylene and another name?
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Which one would you pick?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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