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Carlene

#15,369 in 2025Girls' name

Feminine form of Carl, in the free-man name family

Carlene has been given to 15,225 babies in the U.S. since 1895. In 2025 it ranked #15,369 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1955, with 370 recorded.

Babies named Carlene, 2025

1 in 663,000

Carlene over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Carlene: meaning, origin, and history

Feminine form of Carl, in the free-man name family

English, from Germanic

About Carlene

Carlene is an English feminine name formed from Carl with an -ene ending. The older Carl family is connected with the Germanic word for a free man. Singer Carlene Carter gives the name a particularly rich musical history, joining her own songwriting with several generations of the Carter Family.

Meaning and formation

Carlene developed as a twentieth-century formation from Carl. The ending resembles those in Marlene and Charlene, extending the short base into a two-syllable feminine name.

Carl and Karl belong to the same Germanic family as Charles. The older word behind that family referred to a man or free man.

Carlene is pronounced kar-LEEN in English, with the stress at the end. The first syllable keeps the sound of Carl, while the second has a long ee vowel.

Carla is another feminine form of Carl. Charlene is related through Charles, though its usual English opening sound differs from Carlene’s hard k.

Carlene Carter and a family name

Carlene Carter was born Rebecca Carlene Smith, the daughter of June Carter and Carl Smith and the granddaughter of Maybelle Carter. Her public first name therefore comes from the middle of her full birth name.

Her decision to perform as Carter connected her professional identity with her mother’s family rather than with her father’s surname. The name carries a specific place within a much larger country-music history.

As a child she travelled with the Carter Family, later developing her own writing and a musical style that brought country and rock interests together.

Her career was consequently shaped by an inherited musical setting and by the effort to establish an independent recording voice.

Recordings and recognition

The album I Fell in Love appeared in 1990 and brought Carter a Grammy nomination in 1991 for best female country vocal performance.

Little Love Letters followed in 1993 and included “Every Little Thing.” Carter also hosted her own country-video programme on VH1, adding television to her recording and performance work.

In 2014 she released Carter Girl, her first album for Rounder. The project brought together songs spanning the Carter Family generations, including material by the original trio and later family members.

The album also included Carter’s own writing. Rather than treating the family catalogue as a closed historical collection, it placed her work within a continuing musical conversation.

American popularity

Carlene’s largest annual American female total was 370 in 1955, when it ranked #472. In 2025 it was given to five girls and ranked #15,369.

Its strongest American period came well before Carter’s major 1990s recordings, while her career remains a prominent public association for the exact spelling.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Wiktionary and Wikipedia material is adapted with attribution under CC BY-SA 4.0 where applicable. American popularity figures use the local Social Security Administration series for this exact spelling; name-sex-year totals below five are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How popular is Carlene?

In 2025, Carlene ranked #15,369 among girls in the United States, with 5 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1895; its largest annual count was 370 in 1955. 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.

How common is Carlene?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 321,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#15,369
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Carlene 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 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Carlene. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Carlenes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Carlene was born before 1953 — so the typical Carlene is around 72 today.

Median birth year
1953
About 72 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
21.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
3.7%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
8,737
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 21.7% of all recorded uses (3,302).

Is Carlene 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
−6,823
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−6,875
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−8,333
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.29×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
1.4%
Peak was 1955 (370)
Years since peak
70
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
24.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#378
1936

Spellings of Carlene

Carlene is not the most common spelling — Caroline is, with 18.2% against Carlene's 1.1%.

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 Carlene is used

Across 1910–2025, Carlene was most concentrated in Maine — about 1 in 1,754 girls, against 1 in 15,343 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in 100,000).

157 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Maine1 in 1,754
  2. 2Oklahoma1 in 6,667
  3. 3Vermont1 in 6,667
  4. 4Kansas1 in 9,091
  5. 5Tennessee1 in 9,091
  6. 6Massachusetts1 in 10,000
  7. 7Missouri1 in 10,000
  8. 8Illinois1 in 11,111

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. Carlene has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Carlene around the world

Where Carlene 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
    1997–2012
    #5,876
    in 2012
  • Scotland
    1979–1995
    #639
    in 1995
  • Ireland
    1980–1981
    #533
    in 1981
  • France
    2002–2010
    #7,288
    in 2010
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #3,457
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1944–1991
    #669
    in 1991

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Carlene

People whose public names include Carlene, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Carlene in other languages

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

CarleenKarlene

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

Carlene by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#15,369
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 6,875
Best rank ever
#378
1936
Peak year
1955
370 that year
First recorded
1895
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
15,225
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Carlene

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

CarmelaCarissaCarlieCarinaCarleyCarleeCarmellaCarterCaroleneCarsonCarmelCarlottaCarolynnJayleneCarleighCarolannCarlotaImogeneCarolinaCarsynCarlynCarliCarleenAdilene

Names with a curve like Carlene

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

MaryanneRoseannNoreenNitaDarleenMarileeCharleenGayCherryClaudetteMarylouMarva

Sibling names for Carlene

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 Carlene

Top names of 1955, Carlene's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1936Girls' names starting with C