← Back to The Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age
Girl · German compound
Marlene
Say it: mar-LAY-neh
Meaning
German blend of Maria and Magdalena; Maria is from Hebrew Miryam (meaning uncertain) and Magdalena means 'woman of Magdala'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Made famous by Marlene Dietrich and by the wartime song Lili Marleen.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1930s
In the United States
- 130,104 babies given this name since 1904
- At its height in 1936, about 1 in 195 girls
- 132 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Marleen
| English | Marlene |
|---|---|
| Dutch | Marleen |
Famous bearers
- Marlene Dietrich, German-American actress
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.