Earlene
Earlene was last recorded in 2007, when 5 babies were given it; 14,170 Americans have been recorded with it between 1901 and 2007 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,510 Americans named Earlene and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (46% of everyone recorded); the median is 75 years old and half are between 67 and 82.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Earlene by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Earlene mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Earlene is “a female given name from English derived from Earl.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Earlene?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #18,426, in 2007; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
407 babies in 1947, the peak
Earlene peaked in 1947, when 407 girls were given it, #401 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 5 | #18,426 | under 0.01 |
| 1999 | 6 | #13,150 | under 0.01 |
| 1998 | 6 | #12,905 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 9 | #9,246 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 5 | #14,141 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 13 | #6,754 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 6 | #12,224 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 8 | #9,837 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 9 | #8,947 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 11 | #7,549 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (97)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 10 | #8,048 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 23 | #4,150 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 11 | #6,775 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 23 | #3,773 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 14 | #5,254 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 15 | #4,910 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 23 | #3,541 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 24 | #3,359 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 22 | #3,679 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 24 | #3,460 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 17 | #4,378 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 18 | #4,087 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 27 | #2,957 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 23 | #3,300 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 30 | #2,619 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 30 | #2,574 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 43 | #1,968 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 38 | #2,099 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 40 | #1,996 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 54 | #1,693 | 0.03 |
| 1970 | 59 | #1,605 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 84 | #1,217 | 0.05 |
| 1968 | 62 | #1,439 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 73 | #1,259 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 106 | #991 | 0.06 |
| 1965 | 106 | #1,015 | 0.06 |
| 1964 | 115 | #997 | 0.06 |
| 1963 | 133 | #914 | 0.07 |
| 1962 | 143 | #879 | 0.07 |
| 1961 | 138 | #918 | 0.07 |
| 1960 | 183 | #757 | 0.09 |
| 1959 | 178 | #762 | 0.09 |
| 1958 | 188 | #719 | 0.09 |
| 1957 | 220 | #662 | 0.11 |
| 1956 | 236 | #624 | 0.12 |
| 1955 | 265 | #554 | 0.14 |
| 1954 | 273 | #536 | 0.14 |
| 1953 | 313 | #490 | 0.17 |
| 1952 | 265 | #516 | 0.14 |
| 1951 | 341 | #446 | 0.19 |
| 1950 | 336 | #437 | 0.20 |
| 1949 | 344 | #424 | 0.20 |
| 1948 | 396 | #401 | 0.23 |
| 1947 | 407 | #401 | 0.23 |
| 1946 | 349 | #413 | 0.22 |
| 1945 | 342 | #381 | 0.26 |
| 1944 | 356 | #374 | 0.27 |
| 1943 | 399 | #359 | 0.29 |
| 1942 | 383 | #358 | 0.28 |
| 1941 | 352 | #351 | 0.29 |
| 1940 | 361 | #335 | 0.32 |
| 1939 | 336 | #350 | 0.31 |
| 1938 | 388 | #315 | 0.35 |
| 1937 | 333 | #353 | 0.31 |
| 1936 | 335 | #341 | 0.32 |
| 1935 | 334 | #351 | 0.32 |
| 1934 | 348 | #340 | 0.33 |
| 1933 | 327 | #345 | 0.32 |
| 1932 | 283 | #388 | 0.27 |
| 1931 | 298 | #372 | 0.28 |
| 1930 | 282 | #401 | 0.25 |
| 1929 | 294 | #394 | 0.26 |
| 1928 | 285 | #397 | 0.25 |
| 1927 | 263 | #426 | 0.22 |
| 1926 | 225 | #452 | 0.19 |
| 1925 | 220 | #464 | 0.18 |
| 1924 | 212 | #478 | 0.17 |
| 1923 | 181 | #526 | 0.15 |
| 1922 | 172 | #539 | 0.14 |
| 1921 | 156 | #577 | 0.13 |
| 1920 | 136 | #609 | 0.11 |
| 1919 | 103 | #690 | 0.09 |
| 1918 | 114 | #667 | 0.10 |
| 1917 | 92 | #731 | 0.09 |
| 1916 | 82 | #751 | 0.08 |
| 1915 | 71 | #780 | 0.07 |
| 1914 | 52 | #805 | 0.07 |
| 1913 | 23 | #1,158 | 0.04 |
| 1912 | 35 | #848 | 0.06 |
| 1911 | 25 | #857 | 0.06 |
| 1910 | 16 | #1,130 | 0.04 |
| 1909 | 9 | #1,504 | 0.03 |
| 1908 | 8 | #1,577 | 0.02 |
| 1907 | 11 | #1,232 | 0.03 |
| 1906 | 8 | #1,457 | 0.03 |
| 1905 | 10 | #1,254 | 0.03 |
| 1901 | 5 | #1,747 | 0.02 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Earlene a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Earlene has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 97 years of records.
Girls and boys named Earlene: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Earlene, and how old are they?
6,510 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 46% of the 14,170 Americans ever recorded as Earlene. The median Earlene alive today is 75 years old; half are between 67 and 82.
The 2020 Census counted 7,002 people named Earlene (6,984 women and girls, 18 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,117 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1,870 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 3,610 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 742 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 234 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 26 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Earlene born?
The states with the most babies named Earlene are Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, with 24% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Mississippi and Alabama are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 1,059 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Mississippi | 846 | not ranked | 3.0× |
| Alabama | 717 | not ranked | 1.9× |
| California | 672 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Arkansas | 663 | not ranked | 2.9× |
| North Carolina | 636 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Oklahoma | 597 | not ranked | 2.3× |
| Georgia | 592 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 517 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Missouri | 486 | not ranked | 1.3× |
Where Earlene is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Earlene is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1910 it was given 3.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Earlene with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 35,203 babies since 1880, Earlene is the second most given (40% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Earlene
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Earlene and names like it
- Compare Earlene and EarlineBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1940sEarlene peaked in 1947.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Earlene since 1910.
- The top names of 1947The year the most babies were named Earlene.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Earlene alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with EMost given first.