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Pearlene

Girls' name

Variant of Pearline

Pearlene has been given to 1,958 babies in the U.S. since 1906. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1938, with 64 recorded.

Babies named Pearlene, 1978

1 in 397,000

Pearlene over time, 1880–2025

Girls
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Pearlene: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Pearline

coinages

What Pearlene means

Pearlene is a variant of Pearline.

Origin, language, and formation

Pearlene is used in English. Its origins include coinages.

Pearlene is a modern formation.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Pearline.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,958 girls were recorded with the name Pearlene between 1906 and 1978. Its highest annual count was 64 in 1938; its best national rank was #885 in 1934.

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 Pearlene?

Pearlene had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1978, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1978
1 in 397,000
8 of 3,173,639 births
Among girls only
1 in 191,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1978
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
274,976 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Pearlene 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 1978 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 274,976 children born in 1978 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Pearlene. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Pearlenes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Pearlene was born before 1939 — so the typical Pearlene is around 86 today.

Median birth year
1939
About 86 years old
Biggest decade
1930s
25.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
15.4%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
471
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1930s — 25.4% of all recorded uses (497).

Is Pearlene 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
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1938 (64)
Years since peak
87
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
18.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#885
1934

Spellings of Pearlene

Pearlene is not the most common spelling — Darlene is, with 28.6% against Pearlene's 0.27%.

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 Pearlene is used

Across 1910–2025, Pearlene was most concentrated in Arkansas — about 1 in 20,000 girls, against 1 in 61,225 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

05 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Arkansas1 in 20,000
  2. 2Mississippi1 in 20,000
  3. 3North Carolina1 in 33,333
  4. 4Alabama1 in 50,000
  5. 5Georgia1 in 50,000
  6. 6South Carolina1 in 50,000
  7. 7Oklahoma1 in 100,000
  8. 8Texas1 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. Pearlene has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Pearlene around the world

Where Pearlene 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.

  • South Australia
    1947–1947
    #366
    in 1947

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Pearlene by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#885
1934
Peak year
1938
64 that year
First recorded
1906
Last recorded
1978
All-time count
1,958
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Pearlene

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

MadalenePearleanShayleneAbileneRaeleneJazlenePearlineAdeleneJaileneJasleneMayleneJoeleneAngeleneHarleneEtheleneRosaleneFranceneEmmaleneRaylenePearlaEileneMadeleneCeleneAilene

Sibling names for Pearlene

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 Pearlene

Top names of 1938, Pearlene's peak yearThe 1930s in fullOther names that peaked in 1934Girls' names starting with P