Darlene

Where Darlene comes from

A 20th-century coinage from darling and names like Charlene and Marlene.
— Wiktionary's entry for Darlene
  • English
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1896
    First appearance
    #1,583 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1936
    Darlene Hard born
    American tennis player
  3. 1941
    Darlene Love born
    American musician
  4. 1958
    Peak, #49
    8,278 babies named Darlene — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1966
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #94.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from English [in turn originating as a coinage], of modern usage.
Namesakes
  • Darlene Hard · American tennis player, 1936–2021
  • Darlene Love · American musician, born 1941
  • Darlene Conley · American actress, 1934–2007
  • Darlene Cates · American actress, 1947–2017
  • Darlene Zschech · Australian singer and pastor, born 1965

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.