Arlyn
A feminine name, a variant of Arline, meaning "pledge" or "oath".
Name Census estimates that about 3,042 living Americans carry the first name Arlyn. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 51.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Arlyn today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arlyn births was 1934 (75 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arlyn. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Arlyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Arlyn started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Arlyn sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
3.0K
~ 1 in 112,674 Americans
Peak year
1934
75 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,507
Tracked since 1912
Census
Arlyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,647 people with the first name Arlyn, which placed it at #4,902 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
#4,902
National first-name rank
People counted
3.6K
3,647 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arlyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arlyn is White at 45.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (17.2%). 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 Arlyn 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 Arlyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.9% · 1,674
- Hispanic or Latino31.6% · 1,152
- Asian and Pacific Islander17.2% · 629
- Black or African American3.2% · 117
- Two or more races1.1% · 41
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 34
Gender
Gender distribution for Arlyn
Arlyn is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 4,473 total registrations, 2,165 (48.4%) were male and 2,308 (51.6%) were female.
Arlyn as a male name
- Ranked #6,191 in 2024
- 14 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1939 (66 births)
Arlyn as a female name
- Ranked #3,507 in 2024
- 44 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (59 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Arlyn on both sides of the split. Of the 3,651 people counted with this name, 1,325 were male (36.3%) and 2,326 were female (63.7%).
Popularity
Arlyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arlyn from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 603 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1930s peak, Arlyn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arlyn 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 Arlyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arlyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. California, Wisconsin, Texas recorded the most babies named Arlyn, while New Jersey, South Dakota, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 106 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arlyn
The name Arlyn is believed to have originated from the Old English language, with its roots tracing back to the Anglo-Saxon era of the 5th to 11th centuries. The name is thought to be a combination of the Old English words "ær" meaning "honor" or "noble" and "lind" meaning "linden tree" or "shield." This suggests that the name may have been given to individuals who were perceived as honorable or noble, or who possessed qualities associated with strength and protection, symbolized by the linden tree or shield.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Arlyn can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of land and property ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as a variant spelling, "Ærlind," which further reinforces its Anglo-Saxon origins.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Arlyn. One such figure was Arlyn Sieker (1912-2004), an American baseball player who played for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago White Sox in the 1930s and 1940s. Another was Arlyn Eshbach (1949-2021), an American science fiction author and editor, best known for her work in the fantasy genre.
In the literary world, Arlyn Snowden (1932-2016) was an American poet and educator who taught at various universities and published several collections of poetry. Arlyn Gries (1936-2018) was an American painter and sculptor, known for her abstract expressionist works and her contributions to the art scene in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Arlyn Naw (born 1950) is a Burmese politician and women's rights activist who has been a member of the Pyithu Hluttaw, the lower house of the Parliament of Myanmar, since 2012. She has been a vocal advocate for gender equality and democratic reforms in her country.
It is worth noting that while the name Arlyn has historical roots in the Anglo-Saxon language and culture, it has been adopted and used in various parts of the world over time. However, the specific details and references provided in this report focus primarily on the name's origins and earliest known instances within the context of English history and literature.
People
Arlyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arlyn 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
Arlyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arlyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,042 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arlyn 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 112,674 US residents.
Is Arlyn a common name?
We classify Arlyn as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,473 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arlyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Arlyn was 1934, when 75 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arlyn is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arlyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,647 people with the name Arlyn, or 1.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,902 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 Arlyn 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 Arlyn?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Arlyn on both sides of the split. Of the 3,651 people counted with this name, 1,325 were male (36.3%) and 2,326 were female (63.7%). 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 Arlyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arlyn is White at 45.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (17.2%). 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 Arlyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arlyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.9% (1,674 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 Arlyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arlyn a female name?
Yes, 51.6% of people registered as Arlyn 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 Arlyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arlyn 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 Arlyn 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 common is the name Arlyn?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.