Angeline

About Angeline

Angeline is a French form of Angela, belonging to the name family associated with “angel” and the Greek meaning “messenger.” It has a longer, flowing shape than Angela and an ending distinct from Angelina. Writer Angeline Boulley and actor Angie Dickinson, born Angeline Brown, give it notable modern associations.

Meaning and related forms

Angela is the feminine form of Latin Angelus. The family ultimately connects with Greek angelos, meaning “messenger,” the word that also lies behind English angel.

Angeline developed as a French familiar form. French pronunciation uses a soft zh sound, approximately ahn-zhuh-LEEN, while English usage often adapts the consonants to the familiar Angela family. Angèle and Angelina are related forms, and Angie or Lina can serve as everyday shortenings.

The name's ending gives it a different rhythm from Angela's final a. Angelina adds another syllable, while Angeline keeps the longer written shape with a more compact conclusion.

Angeline Boulley's fiction

Boulley's debut novel Firekeeper's Daughter won both the Michael L. Printz Award and the William C. Morris Award in 2022. The Morris honor specifically recognizes a first-time young-adult author.

Its central character, Daunis, is a former hockey player and aspiring scientist whose life spans her Ojibwe community and the Michigan town where she grew up. After witnessing her best friend's murder, she becomes involved in an investigation into a dangerous drug affecting people around her.

The novel combines a crime investigation with questions of community responsibility and belonging. Its recognition gives Angeline a particularly strong association with contemporary young-adult literature.

Boulley's Warrior Girl Unearthed followed in 2023. It centers on Perry Firekeeper-Birch and the effort to recover stolen history and ancestral heritage. The two books connect the author's name with stories in which young women confront threats reaching beyond their own immediate lives.

Perry's twin sister Pauline and the Sugar Island setting connect her investigation with family and place.

Angeline Brown becomes Angie Dickinson

Dickinson was born Angeline Brown in Kulm, North Dakota, where her family worked in local newspaper publishing. She moved to California as a child and later took acting lessons while working in the aircraft industry.

A talent scout noticed her at a beauty contest, and a major screen opportunity followed when Howard Hawks cast her in Rio Bravo. She later became especially familiar through Police Woman.

Her career illustrates an established everyday form of Angeline in public use: Angie. The full name belongs to her early life, while the shorter form became the name audiences associated with her acting.

American popularity

Angeline's best United States girls' ranking was #183 in 1915. Its largest annual count came in 1921, with 986 births at #203. Use later fell to 179 girls in 2000 before rising to 313 in 2010. In 2025, 134 American girls received Angeline, ranking #1,570. The record combines a strong early twentieth-century period with continuing, more modest modern use.

How popular is Angeline?

In 2025, Angeline ranked #1,570 among girls in the United States, with 134 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 986 in 1921. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.