Pearlene
Pearlene was last recorded in 1978, when 8 babies were given it; 1,958 Americans have been recorded with it between 1906 and 1978 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Pearlene by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Pearlene mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Pearlene is “a female given name originating as a coinage.”
A variant of Pearline.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Pearlene?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #7,437, in 1978; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
64 babies in 1938, the peak
Pearlene peaked in 1938, when 64 girls were given it, #885 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | 8 | #7,437 | 5.2 |
| 1970 | 9 | #5,698 | 5.1 |
| 1967 | 8 | #5,318 | 4.8 |
| 1966 | 10 | #4,401 | 5.9 |
| 1965 | 11 | #4,132 | 6.2 |
| 1964 | 17 | #3,202 | 9.0 |
| 1963 | 16 | #3,290 | 8.3 |
| 1962 | 13 | #3,730 | 6.6 |
| 1961 | 14 | #3,560 | 6.9 |
| 1960 | 16 | #3,174 | 7.9 |
Every recorded year (62)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | 25 | #2,323 | 12.4 |
| 1958 | 25 | #2,297 | 12.4 |
| 1957 | 29 | #2,054 | 14.2 |
| 1956 | 29 | #2,040 | 14.4 |
| 1955 | 39 | #1,660 | 19.9 |
| 1954 | 33 | #1,821 | 17.0 |
| 1953 | 40 | #1,555 | 21.3 |
| 1952 | 53 | #1,329 | 28.6 |
| 1951 | 33 | #1,690 | 18.3 |
| 1950 | 43 | #1,402 | 25.1 |
| 1949 | 45 | #1,386 | 26.3 |
| 1948 | 53 | #1,264 | 31.2 |
| 1947 | 59 | #1,178 | 33.3 |
| 1946 | 40 | #1,387 | 25.5 |
| 1945 | 33 | #1,412 | 25.2 |
| 1944 | 58 | #1,036 | 43.7 |
| 1943 | 47 | #1,189 | 33.7 |
| 1942 | 58 | #1,036 | 42.9 |
| 1941 | 40 | #1,202 | 33.1 |
| 1940 | 48 | #1,043 | 42.0 |
| 1939 | 61 | #902 | 55.6 |
| 1938 | 64 | #885 | 58.0 |
| 1937 | 49 | #1,012 | 46.1 |
| 1936 | 38 | #1,161 | 36.5 |
| 1935 | 58 | #910 | 55.3 |
| 1934 | 60 | #885 | 57.5 |
| 1933 | 35 | #1,217 | 34.7 |
| 1932 | 45 | #1,064 | 42.2 |
| 1931 | 46 | #1,038 | 43.2 |
| 1930 | 41 | #1,176 | 36.4 |
| 1929 | 41 | #1,170 | 36.7 |
| 1928 | 39 | #1,233 | 33.8 |
| 1927 | 40 | #1,255 | 33.5 |
| 1926 | 26 | #1,655 | 21.9 |
| 1925 | 35 | #1,368 | 28.8 |
| 1924 | 35 | #1,401 | 28.0 |
| 1923 | 34 | #1,380 | 28.2 |
| 1922 | 29 | #1,566 | 24.1 |
| 1921 | 28 | #1,609 | 22.7 |
| 1920 | 24 | #1,743 | 20.0 |
| 1919 | 21 | #1,841 | 18.6 |
| 1918 | 35 | #1,294 | 30.2 |
| 1917 | 24 | #1,594 | 22.2 |
| 1916 | 17 | #2,010 | 16.3 |
| 1915 | 15 | #2,119 | 15.2 |
| 1914 | 14 | #1,884 | 18.4 |
| 1913 | 8 | #2,494 | 12.8 |
| 1912 | 13 | #1,600 | 23.3 |
| 1911 | 8 | #1,923 | 19.1 |
| 1910 | 13 | #1,319 | 32.8 |
| 1907 | 5 | #2,314 | 15.7 |
| 1906 | 5 | #2,162 | 16.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Pearlene a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Pearlene has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 62 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Pearlene: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Pearlene, and how old are they?
An estimated 771 Americans named Pearlene and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (39% of everyone recorded); the median is 77 years old and half are between 70 and 83. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 836 people named Pearlene (836 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 997 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% 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.
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 Pearlene born?
The states with the most babies named Pearlene are North Carolina, Texas and Mississippi, with 53% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Mississippi is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 120 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Texas | 115 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Mississippi | 109 | not ranked | 2.7× |
| Arkansas | 86 | not ranked | 2.6× |
| Georgia | 83 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Alabama | 64 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| South Carolina | 44 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Oklahoma | 16 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Virginia | 10 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Tennessee | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Pearlene is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Pearlene is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1910 it was given 2.7 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 Pearlene 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 8,995 babies since 1880, Pearlene is the second most given (22% 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 Pearlene
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 Pearlene and names like it
- Compare Pearlene and PearlineBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1930sPearlene peaked in 1938.
- North Carolina’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Pearlene since 1910.
- Coined namesWiktionary’s origin for Pearlene: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1938The year the most babies were named Pearlene.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Pearlene alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with PMost given first.