Starlett
Feminine · “a little star”
Doubling the t at the end pulls this name toward French. Endings like -ette and -etta are the ones English associates with borrowed elegance — Colette, Annette, Rosetta — and writing Starlett rather than Starlet borrows a little of that without going all the way to an e. It is a small piece of ambition applied to a word that was already about ambition.
How old is the name Starlett?
Starlett first appears in US birth records in 1942 — 83 years ago. The typical Starlett alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 700 people named Starlett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Starlett most popular?
Starlett peaked in 1947, reaching #2769 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 10,439 places below that high. See the whole 1947 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From star to Starlett
The story of Starlett
American naming in the middle of the twentieth century produced a whole set of names on Star — Star, Starla, Starlene, Starlet, Starlett — and they arrived together in the 1940s and 1950s. The word starlet was current in the film industry at exactly that moment, and the naming is plainly connected. What the doubled t does is what doubled consonants usually do in American naming: it marks the spelling as a family's own choice rather than the dictionary's. The record shows it from 1942 and peaked within five years.
Meaning
a little star
From star and the diminutive -let, which English took from French. The doubled t adds nothing to the meaning; it moves the word visually toward the -ette endings that English treats as French and elegant, without actually being one.
How the name formed
- star
- starlet
- Starlett
Pronouncing Starlett
STAR-let
Two syllables, stress on the first. The doubled t makes no difference to the sound at all; Starlet and Starlett are said identically.
Nicknames for Starlett
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
- 1942
- Most girls named
- 198126 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2769reached in 1947
- Change vs 2024
- −57.1%6 in 2025, from 14
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.
Starletts among us
people named Starlett are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Starlett
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Starlett
- #13208
- Starlett on the 2025 chart
- #948
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Starlett went to 6 girls in 2025, but Starlet is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 12, which makes it the 948th most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,260 places above the chart.
- Starlet6
- Starlett6
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Starlett 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 Seretha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Starlett's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Seretha climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Seretha's path sketches the road Starlett is walking now.
Starlett 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
Starlett beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Starlett in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Star and Etta are both usable and belong to different generations.
- It is readable on sight by any English speaker.
- The doubled t marks it as a deliberate spelling rather than a default.
- Starlet with one t is the dictionary word and will be written instead.
- The word carries the film industry's assumptions about young women with it.
- It belongs precisely to the 1940s and 1950s and dates a name to them.
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What they receive
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Starlett
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Starletts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Starlett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Starlett?
- Starlett is one of 2 recorded spellings. Starlet is the more common one — 6 births in 2025 against 6 for Starlett.
- How popular is the name Starlett in 2025?
- Starlett ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Starlett?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Starlett — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Starlett with classmates?
- Starlett will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Starlett
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Starlett? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Starlett and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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