Harlene
#15,739 in 2025Girls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Harlene has been given to 1,124 babies in the U.S. since 1915. In 2025 it ranked #15,739 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1937, with 81 recorded.
Babies named Harlene, 2025
1 in 663,000
Harlene over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Harlene?
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
- #15,739
- of 17,293 girls’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 459,581 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Harlene sits on the popularity scale
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.
Put another way: gather 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Harlene. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Harlenes were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Harlene was born before 1941 — so the typical Harlene is around 84 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1930s
- 37.5% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 2.2%
- Mostly a past generation
- Recorded since 1950
- 285
- People you could plausibly meet
1930s — 37.5% of all recorded uses (422).
Is Harlene 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
- —
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- +233
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Births vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not published both years
- Share of its own peak
- 6.2%
- Peak was 1937 (81)
- Years since peak
- 88
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Shifting
- 21.9% average annual change
Spellings of Harlene
Harlene is not the most common spelling — Darlene is, with 19.8% against Harlene's 0.11%.
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 Harlene is used
Across 1910–2025, Harlene was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 239,718 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 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. Harlene has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Harlene around the world
Where Harlene 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.
- Canada1992–1992#2,433in 1992
- South Australia1946–1946#367in 1946
Popularity data from Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Harlene by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Harlene
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Harlene
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.