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Arlean vs Arleen

American parents have registered 12,617 Arleens since 1880, against 1,673 Arleans. Arleen is still ahead, with 19 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Arlean against Arleen, 1880 to 2025 0 125 250 375 500 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Arlean Arleen

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 131 years in which either name was published, Arleen for 123 years and Arlean for 8 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Arlean Arleen
Total US births 1,67312,617
Most in one year 44415
Babies in 2025 under 519
Estimated living today 5707,500
Median age today 7265
Peak year 19181939
Best rank 1,102nd girls303rd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked6,116th
First recorded 18921898
Girls / boys 1,673 / 012,611 / 6

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Arleans alive today are over 72; half the Arleens are over 65. That is 7 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Arlean and Arleen.