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Marleen

#11,550 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Marlene

Marleen has been given to 4,121 babies in the U.S. since 1926. In 2025 it ranked #11,550 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1951, with 133 recorded.

Babies named Marleen, 2025

1 in 414,000

Marleen over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Marleen: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Marlene

Hebrew

What Marleen means

Marleen is a variant of Marlene.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Marleen is used in Dutch and English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /mɑr.ˈleːn/, /ˈmɑɹ.lin/, /mɑɹ.ˈlin/, /ˈmɑː.lin/ and /mɑː.ˈliːn/ for Marleen.

Origin, language, and formation

Marleen is used in English, Dutch, Estonian and German. Its origins include Hebrew.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Marlene and Maria Magdalena.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Dutch, Marleen is pronounced /mɑrˈleːn/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,121 girls were recorded with the name Marleen between 1926 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 133 in 1951; its best national rank was #747 in 1939.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #11,753 in 2020 to #11,550 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #7,163 in 2015 to #11,550 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 Marleen?

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
#11,550
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
287,238 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Marleen 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 Marleen. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Marleens were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Marleen was born before 1957 — so the typical Marleen is around 68 today.

Median birth year
1957
About 68 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
22.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
14.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,870
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 22.8% of all recorded uses (938).

Is Marleen 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
−755
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+203
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−4,387
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.47×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
6.0%
Peak was 1951 (133)
Years since peak
74
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
35.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#747
1939

Spellings of Marleen

Marleen is not the most common spelling — Maureen is, with 25.3% against Marleen's 0.72%.

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 Marleen is used

Across 1910–2025, Marleen was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 20,000 girls, against 1 in 56,753 across all states with data. It was least common in Oregon (1 in —).

05 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 20,000
  2. 2Iowa1 in 50,000
  3. 3Michigan1 in 50,000
  4. 4New York1 in 50,000
  5. 5Pennsylvania1 in 50,000
  6. 6Wisconsin1 in 50,000
  7. 7Hawaii1 in 100,000
  8. 8Illinois1 in 100,000

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

Marleen around the world

Where Marleen 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
    2016–2016
    #5,785
    in 2016
  • France
    1985–2004
    #5,428
    in 2004
  • South Australia
    1944–1969
    #731
    in 1969

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

Notable people named Marleen

People whose public names include Marleen, 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.

Marleen in other languages

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

MarleeMarlenaMarleneMarlène

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

Marleen by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#11,550
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 203
Best rank ever
#747
1939
Peak year
1951
133 that year
First recorded
1926
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,121
Count in 2025
8

Names similar to Marleen

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

MargauxMarylinMarloweMaryleeMarylynMarlanaMartineMariyahMariannMarileeMariamaMarjoryMarcelaMarielleMarlieMargretMaritaMarysolMarvelMariellaMarlenaMarandaMarcelleMarleny

Names with a curve like Marleen

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

KarleneOraliaDarylJoettaJaneyCharoletteIlonaSusannCarolynnRosannLarryJerrie

Sibling names for Marleen

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 Marleen

Top names of 1951, Marleen's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1939Girls' names starting with M