Marylene
Feminine form of French name Marie and Greek name Helen, meaning "bitter sea".
Name Census estimates that about 86 living Americans carry the first name Marylene. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Marylene today is around 79 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marylene births was 1937 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marylene. 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 Marylene is about 79 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Marylenes were born before 1957.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Marylene. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
86
~ 1 in 3,985,516 Americans
Peak year
1937
14 babies that year
Average age
79
years old
1961 SSA rank
#7,202
Tracked since 1917
Census
Marylene in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 350 people with the first name Marylene, which placed it at #26,543 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
#26,543
National first-name rank
People counted
350
350 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
37.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marylene
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marylene is White at 37.7%. The next largest groups are Black (29.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (19.7%). 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 Marylene 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 Marylene at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White37.7% · 132
- Black or African American29.4% · 103
- Asian and Pacific Islander19.7% · 69
- Hispanic or Latino9.1% · 32
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 10
- Two or more races1.1% · 4
Popularity
Marylene: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marylene from the 1910s through to the 1960s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 90 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marylene 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 Marylene 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 Marylene
Marylene is a French feminine given name that originated as a combination of the names Marie and Hélène. The name Marie has its roots in the Hebrew name Miryam, while Hélène is derived from the Greek word "helene," meaning "bright" or "shining light."
The name Marylene gained popularity in France during the 20th century, although its exact origins and the first recorded use are uncertain. It is believed to have emerged as a variant of the name Marilyn, which itself is a combination of the names Marie and Lynn.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Marylene was Marylene Demongeot, a French actress born in 1935. She appeared in numerous films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including "Bonjour Tristesse" and "Circus World."
Another notable Marylene was Marylene Bergé, a French fashion designer and businesswoman born in 1945. She co-founded the high-end fashion brand Marithé + François Girbaud and played a significant role in shaping the French fashion industry.
In the literary world, Marylene Desnoyers is a Canadian writer and translator born in 1953. She has published several novels and collections of short stories, including "Les Mouches de Novembre" and "La Promesse du Fleuve."
Marylene Delbecq-Dehouck, born in 1950, is a French historian and archaeologist who has made significant contributions to the study of ancient Near Eastern civilizations, particularly in the field of Sumerian and Akkadian studies.
Marylene Labaki, born in 1976, is a Lebanese actress, director, and screenwriter. She gained international recognition for her films "Caramel" and "Where Do We Go Now?," which explored themes of women's empowerment and communal tensions in Lebanon.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Marylene. While its origins can be traced back to the combination of Marie and Hélène, the name has taken on its own unique identity and has been carried by influential figures across various fields.
People
Marylene + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marylene as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Marylene: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marylene?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 86 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marylene 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 3,985,516 US residents.
Is Marylene a common name?
We classify Marylene as "Very Rare". It ranks above 62.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 301 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marylene most popular?
The single biggest year for Marylene was 1937, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marylene is about 79 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marylene in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 350 people with the name Marylene, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,543 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 Marylene 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 Marylene?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marylene leans strongly female. 343 people counted with this name were female (98.8%), compared with 4 male bearers (1.2%). 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 Marylene?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marylene is White at 37.7%. The next largest groups are Black (29.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (19.7%). 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 Marylene most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marylene in the 2020 Census, accounting for 37.7% (132 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 Marylene in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marylene a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marylene 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 Marylene still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marylene 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 Marylene 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 have the name Marylene?
Find out how many Americans are named Marylene on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.