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The first name 
Marlene

Marlene is a female first name. In very rare cases it is also used for boys.

Marlene is a well-known but special name!

Marlene is a well-known name in the US, but is still special. It is currently only given to every ten thousandth girl, and therefore ranks at 1,142 in the SmartGenius statistics. This means there are 1,141 girls names that are more common, but also tens of thousands that are much rarer. In the entire USA, approximately 125,756 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Marlene. That is 0.04 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Marlene

What does the name 
Marlene mean?

In the 1930s, Marlene was a top 50 first name in the US for several years due to the famous actress Marlene Dietrich. The name is of German origin and was created by combining the names Maria and Magdalena.

Did you know that... Marlene Dietrich was really named Marie Magdalene Dietrich?

Marlene -
classic and modern at the same time

Who would have thought it? After many years of not appearing at all in the SmartGenius statistics, Marlene reached its highest rank ever in the year 1936 at #39. In other words: 5,353 newborn girls were named Marlene that year. Since then, it has been considered to be a universally popular name, chosen by a large number of happy parents every year. Although the times of its highest popularity are now many decades ago, Marlene is still going strong and has not been forgotten yet. We can only wait and see if there will be a new surprise in store and if Marlene will be able to top its all-time best ranking ever again.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Marlene was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Marlene - a popular player in the midfield

In 2022, Marlene ranked 1,142 in our SmartGenius statistics. In absolute figures, this means it was given to baby girls a total of 190 times. No one knows what names (or combinations of numbers and letters) will be popular 50 years from now, but given its consistent popularity, there is a good chance that Marlene will remain a universally popular name.

Marlene -
well known in all states of the USA, most popular in North Dakota

There are only 537 different women’s names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Marlene is one of them. However, Marlene is not equally widespread in all states, but people in North Dakota seem to particularly fancy this name – the 1,520 women called Marlene who live here are 0,291% of all female residents and push their name up to #94, easily placing it in the top 100 most common female names in North Dakota.

Marlene has 7 letters 
and begins with an M

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter M is a quite popular first letter for girls' names. That’s because 8.5% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letters A and S are more common for girls' names.

With seven letters, the name Marlene has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

Therefore: As 8.5% of all girls' names start with an M, this initial letter occurs nearly 2.5-times as often as all 26 letters on average – and the most common one of all the girls’ names starting with M is Mary.

Other names with 
M, a, r, l, e, n and e

If you take all the letters in the name Marlene – M, a, r, l, e, n and e – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Marleen or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Marlene

If your name is Marlene and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Marlene

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Marlene, you can simply say:

Mouse

Apple

Rocket

Lion

Elephant

Nut

Elephant

This is how the name Marlene is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Marlene in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Marlene

Marlene

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Marlene

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Marlene is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

M
A
R
L
E
N
E

Have you ever waved the name Marlene

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

M
A
R
L
E
N
E

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Marlene sounds like this: