Arliene
A feminine variant of Arlene, meaning "pledge" or "guarantee".
Name Census estimates that about 20 living Americans carry the first name Arliene. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Arliene today is around 83 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arliene births was 1921 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arliene. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Arliene is about 83 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Arlienes were born before 1953.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Arliene. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
20
~ 1 in 17,137,717 Americans
Peak year
1921
12 babies that year
Average age
83
years old
1955 SSA rank
#5,869
Tracked since 1914
Census
Arliene in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 106 people with the first name Arliene, which placed it at #52,574 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#52,574
National first-name rank
People counted
106
106 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arliene
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arliene is White at 71.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Arliene described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Arliene at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.7% · 76
- Hispanic or Latino13.2% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.6% · 7
- Black or African American5.7% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.8% · 3
Popularity
Arliene: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arliene from the 1910s through to the 1950s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 81 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arliene by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Arliene during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arliene
The name Arliene is a variant spelling of the French name Arlene, which itself is a feminine form of the name Arlen or Arline. It is ultimately derived from the Germanic name Arlen or Arin, which is composed of the elements "ari" meaning "eagle" and "lind" meaning "serpent" or "snake".
The name first emerged during the Middle Ages across parts of Western Europe, particularly in France and the regions that would later become Germany and the Low Countries. Early forms of the name can be found in medieval records from the 12th and 13th centuries, often spelled as Arelina or Arelyna.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Arelina of Flanders, a Flemish noblewomen who lived in the late 12th century. She was the daughter of Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders, and gained some renown for her philanthropic work in establishing hospices and hospitals.
In the 14th century, the name appears in the written works of the Italian poet Petrarch, who mentioned an Arelina among the ladies of the court of Robert of Anjou, King of Naples. This literary reference likely helped to popularize the name further across parts of Europe.
During the Renaissance period, the name underwent some evolution in spelling and form, emerging as Arlene or Arlyne in parts of France and the Low Countries. Notable bearers from this era include Arlene de Bourgogne (1393-1470), a French noblewoman and lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Burgundy.
By the 17th century, the name had spread more widely across Western Europe, appearing in records from England, Germany, and the Netherlands. One prominent figure was Arlyne van Aerssen (1607-1668), a Dutch Golden Age painter known for her still life works.
Over the following centuries, various spellings of the name continued to be used across the Western world, including Arliene, Arlyne, and Arleyne. Some noteworthy individuals include Arliene Francis (1923-2001), an American actress and television personality, and Arliene Settle (1938-2012), an American artist and sculptor.
People
Arliene + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arliene as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Arliene: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arliene?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 20 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arliene going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 17,137,717 US residents.
Is Arliene a common name?
We classify Arliene as "Very Rare". It ranks above 39.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 176 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arliene most popular?
The single biggest year for Arliene was 1921, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arliene is about 83 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arliene in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 106 people with the name Arliene, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #52,574 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Arliene in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Arliene?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arliene appears almost entirely female. Of the 98 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Arliene?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arliene is White at 71.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Arliene most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arliene in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.7% (76 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Arliene in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arliene a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Arliene in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Arliene still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arliene in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Arliene can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Arliene?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.