Marlene Girl
How popular is Marlene?
#1,261 girl name in 2025
177 baby girls were named Marlene in the US in 2025, making it the 1261st most popular girl name.
Marlene popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #1,261 for girls (▲ 292 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 177 girls |
| 10-year trend | Falling (-18% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #1,167 in 2015, #1,559 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1936 (5,332 girls) |
| Highest rank | #39 in 1935 (2 years at that rank) |
| First recorded | 1904 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 0% boys, 100% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.1% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Marlene counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Marilyn family of names ranked #429 for girls in 2025 (#413 the year before), with 698 babies in all.
| Spelling | Girls in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Marilyn | 356 | 51% |
| Marlene | 177 | 25% |
| Marilynn | 41 | 6% |
| Marlen | 42 | 6% |
| Marlyn | 22 | 3% |
| Marelyn | 19 | 3% |
| Marylin | 11 | 2% |
| Marylynn | 16 | 2% |
| Marlynn | 7 | 1% |
| Marylyn | 7 | 1% |
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Marlene is most popular
Babies named Marlene per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- Arizona: 0.2 per 1,000 (34 girls)
- Indiana: 0.2 per 1,000 (33 girls)
- Ohio: 0.2 per 1,000 (54 girls)
- California: 0.2 per 1,000 (150 girls)
- Pennsylvania: 0.2 per 1,000 (42 girls)
Marlene by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 18 | #1,727 |
| 1910s | 263 | #1,057 |
| 1920s | 774 | #603 |
| 1930s | 37,355 | #39 |
| 1940s | 29,295 | #80 |
| 1950s | 25,251 | #112 |
| 1960s | 12,951 | #208 |
| 1970s | 5,728 | #316 |
| 1980s | 4,769 | #411 |
| 1990s | 5,716 | #344 |
| 2000s | 5,283 | #485 |
| 2010s | 2,222 | #873 |
| 2020s | 948 | #1,256 |
Girl names about as popular as Marlene
Questions
- Is Marlene a boy or girl name?
- Marlene is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Marlene were girls.
- How popular is the name Marlene?
- 177 baby girls were named Marlene in the US in 2025, making it the 1261st most popular girl name.
- When was Marlene most popular?
- Marlene peaked in 1936, when 5,332 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #39, held for 2 years starting in 1935.
- How many people are named Marlene?
- 130,932 babies have been named Marlene in the US since 1880. We estimate about 84,836 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 70.
- Where is Marlene most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Marlene was most common in Arizona, at 0.2 of every 1,000 girls born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.