Marleen
Marleen was given to 8 girls in 2025, #11,550 among girls’ names; 4,121 Americans have been recorded with it since 1926 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,140 Americans named Marleen and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (76% of everyone recorded); the median is 61 years old and half are between 32 and 74.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Marleen by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Marleen mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Marleen is “a female given name from Hebrew, a less common spelling of Marlene.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Marleen?
#11,550 among girls’ names, 2025
Marleen fell from #7,163 in 2015 to #11,550 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 9.5 to 5.0 per million.
133 babies in 1951, the peak
Marleen peaked in 1951, when 133 girls were given it, #769 among girls’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 6% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,550 | 5.0 |
| 2024 | 9 | #10,795 | 5.6 |
| 2023 | 11 | #9,385 | 6.9 |
| 2022 | 14 | #7,900 | 8.5 |
| 2021 | 16 | #7,146 | 9.8 |
| 2020 | 8 | #11,753 | 4.9 |
| 2019 | 14 | #8,003 | 8.3 |
| 2018 | 7 | #13,328 | 4.1 |
| 2017 | 17 | #6,990 | 9.8 |
| 2016 | 18 | #6,816 | 10.2 |
Every recorded year (100)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 17 | #7,163 | 9.5 |
| 2014 | 25 | #5,403 | 14.0 |
| 2013 | 22 | #5,945 | 12.5 |
| 2012 | 28 | #5,063 | 15.9 |
| 2011 | 23 | #5,869 | 13.1 |
| 2010 | 28 | #5,054 | 15.8 |
| 2009 | 26 | #5,486 | 14.2 |
| 2008 | 33 | #4,608 | 17.5 |
| 2007 | 80 | #2,381 | 41.6 |
| 2006 | 42 | #3,712 | 22.1 |
| 2005 | 29 | #4,659 | 15.7 |
| 2004 | 33 | #4,240 | 18.0 |
| 2003 | 27 | #4,763 | 14.8 |
| 2002 | 32 | #4,039 | 17.8 |
| 2001 | 30 | #4,159 | 16.7 |
| 2000 | 31 | #4,038 | 17.1 |
| 1999 | 34 | #3,611 | 19.2 |
| 1998 | 41 | #3,090 | 23.2 |
| 1997 | 27 | #4,081 | 15.5 |
| 1996 | 18 | #5,434 | 10.3 |
| 1995 | 24 | #4,298 | 13.6 |
| 1994 | 30 | #3,660 | 16.8 |
| 1993 | 35 | #3,257 | 19.3 |
| 1992 | 24 | #4,326 | 13.0 |
| 1991 | 27 | #3,888 | 14.4 |
| 1990 | 28 | #3,771 | 14.7 |
| 1989 | 20 | #4,601 | 10.8 |
| 1988 | 25 | #3,759 | 14.0 |
| 1987 | 19 | #4,408 | 10.9 |
| 1986 | 24 | #3,602 | 14.0 |
| 1985 | 20 | #4,078 | 11.6 |
| 1984 | 24 | #3,480 | 14.3 |
| 1983 | 17 | #4,400 | 10.2 |
| 1982 | 24 | #3,490 | 14.2 |
| 1981 | 36 | #2,594 | 21.6 |
| 1980 | 21 | #3,793 | 12.6 |
| 1979 | 25 | #3,296 | 15.6 |
| 1978 | 28 | #2,910 | 18.3 |
| 1977 | 33 | #2,593 | 21.5 |
| 1976 | 20 | #3,476 | 13.7 |
| 1975 | 25 | #2,927 | 17.1 |
| 1974 | 31 | #2,475 | 21.1 |
| 1973 | 25 | #2,801 | 17.1 |
| 1972 | 29 | #2,489 | 19.1 |
| 1971 | 40 | #2,087 | 24.0 |
| 1970 | 57 | #1,646 | 32.6 |
| 1969 | 38 | #2,042 | 22.5 |
| 1968 | 47 | #1,721 | 28.7 |
| 1967 | 33 | #2,058 | 20.0 |
| 1966 | 41 | #1,786 | 24.2 |
| 1965 | 47 | #1,648 | 26.6 |
| 1964 | 51 | #1,603 | 26.9 |
| 1963 | 62 | #1,421 | 32.2 |
| 1962 | 57 | #1,486 | 29.0 |
| 1961 | 43 | #1,762 | 21.3 |
| 1960 | 54 | #1,513 | 26.7 |
| 1959 | 43 | #1,683 | 21.3 |
| 1958 | 50 | #1,520 | 24.9 |
| 1957 | 52 | #1,483 | 25.4 |
| 1956 | 64 | #1,305 | 31.9 |
| 1955 | 99 | #1,005 | 50.6 |
| 1954 | 122 | #861 | 62.8 |
| 1953 | 132 | #800 | 70.2 |
| 1952 | 117 | #851 | 63.1 |
| 1951 | 133 | #769 | 73.9 |
| 1950 | 126 | #770 | 73.6 |
| 1949 | 108 | #850 | 63.1 |
| 1948 | 116 | #803 | 68.3 |
| 1947 | 103 | #864 | 58.1 |
| 1946 | 86 | #904 | 54.7 |
| 1945 | 78 | #852 | 59.7 |
| 1944 | 66 | #958 | 49.7 |
| 1943 | 81 | #868 | 58.1 |
| 1942 | 68 | #953 | 50.3 |
| 1941 | 44 | #1,128 | 36.4 |
| 1940 | 72 | #845 | 63.0 |
| 1939 | 85 | #747 | 77.5 |
| 1938 | 51 | #1,001 | 46.2 |
| 1937 | 56 | #926 | 52.6 |
| 1936 | 55 | #927 | 52.9 |
| 1935 | 47 | #1,012 | 44.8 |
| 1934 | 28 | #1,395 | 26.8 |
| 1933 | 23 | #1,583 | 22.8 |
| 1932 | 29 | #1,415 | 27.2 |
| 1931 | 24 | #1,579 | 22.5 |
| 1930 | 8 | #3,542 | 7.1 |
| 1929 | 6 | #4,396 | 5.4 |
| 1928 | 5 | #5,176 | 4.3 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,620 | 5.0 |
| 1926 | 6 | #4,650 | 5.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Marleen a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Marleen has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 100 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Marleen: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Marleen, and how old are they?
3,140 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 76% of the 4,121 Americans ever recorded as Marleen. The median Marleen alive today is 61 years old; half are between 32 and 74.
The 2020 Census counted 3,875 people named Marleen (3,865 women and girls, 10 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,366 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 316 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,220 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 498 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 384 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 538 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 185 |
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 Marleen born?
The states with the most babies named Marleen are California, New York and Pennsylvania, with 65% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 839 | not ranked | 2.3× |
| New York | 244 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 148 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 100 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 98 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Texas | 91 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Illinois | 72 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Wisconsin | 69 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 56 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Minnesota | 41 | not ranked | 0.5× |
Where Marleen is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Marleen is most over-represented in California: since 1926 it was given 2.3 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 Marleen 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 20,861 babies since 1880, Marleen is the third most given (20% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 85 babies (9.4%), again the third most given.
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 Marleen
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 Marleen and names like it
- Compare Marleen and MarlynBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sMarleen peaked in 1951.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Marleen since 1910.
- The top names of 1951The year the most babies were named Marleen.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Marleen alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with MMost given first.