Jearlene
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly a combination of Joan and Arlene.
Name Census estimates that about 69 living Americans carry the first name Jearlene. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jearlene today is around 80 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jearlene births was 1937 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jearlene. 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 Jearlene is about 80 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Jearlenes were born before 1956.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Jearlene. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
69
~ 1 in 4,967,454 Americans
Peak year
1937
14 babies that year
Average age
80
years old
1958 SSA rank
#6,479
Tracked since 1928
Census
Jearlene in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 104 people with the first name Jearlene, which placed it at #52,876 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
#52,876
National first-name rank
People counted
104
104 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
61.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jearlene
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jearlene is Black at 61.5%. The next largest groups are White (35.6%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Jearlene 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 Jearlene at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American61.5% · 64
- White35.6% · 37
- Two or more races2.9% · 3
Popularity
Jearlene: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jearlene from the 1920s through to the 1950s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 76 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Jearlene remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jearlene 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 Jearlene during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jearlenes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Jearlene
The name Jearlene is a relatively modern invention, originating in the United States in the early 20th century. It is a combination of the more traditional names Jean and Arlene, both of which have roots in various European languages.
The name Jean is derived from the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Graced by God." It was popularized in France and eventually spread to other parts of Europe and the English-speaking world. Arlene, on the other hand, is a French variant of the German name Arlinda, which is believed to be a combination of the Germanic elements "ari" (meaning "eagle") and "lind" (meaning "serpent" or "snake").
While the name Jearlene itself does not have a long historical record, its component names have been in use for centuries. Jean has been a popular name for both men and women since the Middle Ages, with notable bearers including the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and the English writer Jean Rhys (1890-1979).
Arlene, though less common than Jean, has also been in use for several centuries. One of the earliest recorded examples is Arlene Bly, an American journalist and explorer who lived from 1864 to 1922 and was known for her world travels and daring exploits.
Another notable bearer of the name was Arlene Francis (1907-2001), an American actress and television personality who was a regular panelist on the game show "What's My Line?" from 1950 to 1975.
In the world of literature, Arlene Francis is a character in the novel "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers (1917-1967), which was published in 1940.
More recently, Arlene Blum (born 1945) is an American chemist and mountaineer who led the first all-woman ascent of Annapurna I in 1978.
While the name Jearlene may not have a long and storied history, it is a unique blend of two names with rich cultural and linguistic roots, reflecting the creative naming traditions of 20th-century America.
People
Jearlene + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jearlene as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jearlene: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jearlene?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 69 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jearlene 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 4,967,454 US residents.
Is Jearlene a common name?
We classify Jearlene as "Very Rare". It ranks above 59.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 185 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jearlene most popular?
The single biggest year for Jearlene was 1937, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jearlene is about 80 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jearlene in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 104 people with the name Jearlene, or 0.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #52,876 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 Jearlene 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 Jearlene?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jearlene appears almost entirely female. Of the 107 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 Jearlene?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jearlene is Black at 61.5%. The next largest groups are White (35.6%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Jearlene most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jearlene in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.5% (64 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 Jearlene in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jearlene a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jearlene 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 Jearlene still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jearlene 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 Jearlene 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 people share the name Jearlene?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.