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Arlena

#11,041 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Arlene

Arlena has been given to 2,830 babies in the U.S. since 1883. In 2025 it ranked #11,041 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1919, with 60 recorded.

Babies named Arlena, 2025

1 in 414,000

Arlena over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Arlena: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Arlene

coinages

What Arlena means

Arlena is a variant of Arlene.

Origin, language, and formation

Arlena is used in English. Its origins include coinages.

Arlena is a modern formation.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Arlene.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,830 girls were recorded with the name Arlena between 1883 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 60 in 1919; its best national rank was #825 in 1883.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #12,292 in 2020 to #11,041 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #13,151 in 2015 to #11,041 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Arlena?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 414,000
8 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 201,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#11,041
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
287,238 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Arlena sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 287,238 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Arlena. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Arlenas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Arlena was born before 1948 — so the typical Arlena is around 77 today.

Median birth year
1948
About 77 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
13.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
8.6%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,378
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 13.6% of all recorded uses (384).

Is Arlena rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−3,027
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+1,251
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+2,110
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.14×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
13.3%
Peak was 1919 (60)
Years since peak
106
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
41.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#825
1883

Spellings of Arlena

Arlena is not the most common spelling — Darlene is, with 12.7% against Arlena's 0.18%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Arlena is used

Across 1910–2025, Arlena was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 33,333 girls, against 1 in 233,142 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 33,333
  2. 2Alabama1 in 100,000
  3. 3Arkansas1 in 100,000
  4. 4Georgia1 in 100,000
  5. 5California1 in —
  6. 6Kentucky1 in —
  7. 7Michigan1 in —
  8. 8North Carolina1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Arlena has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Arlena around the world

Where Arlena ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2017–2017
    #4,763
    in 2017
  • Canada
    1991–1991
    #2,131
    in 1991
  • South Australia
    1965–1965
    #674
    in 1965

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Arlena in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Arlena. Linked forms have their own page here.

AlenaArleneArlinaErlena

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Arlena by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#11,041
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 1,251
Best rank ever
#825
1883
Peak year
1919
60 that year
First recorded
1883
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,830
Count in 2025
8

Names similar to Arlena

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ArlettArlieArlethArlettaArletArlynKalenaEllenaSirenaSarenaKarenaArleenDelenaArlaAllenaArlynnArleeVerenaMalenaAmeenaArleanCelenaJelenaArlette

Names with a curve like Arlena

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Arlena, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

GenovevaLorenzaCelestaOneidaOmegaMadeleneCorrinneDelfinaConcepcionSantaJosefaLouis

Sibling names for Arlena

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Arlena

Top names of 1919, Arlena's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1883Girls' names starting with A