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Summary
- No one named Arlene appears in the Bible, and the name has no Hebrew meaning.
- Arlene is a variant of Arline, a name of unknown meaning that may have been invented for the heroine of Michael William Balfe’s opera The Bohemian Girl (1843).
- Behind the Name records no Gaelic origin, so the popular meaning “pledge” or “oath” has no support.
- Arlene ranked among the 1,000 most common American girls’ names from 1888, well before Charlene (1907) and Marlene (1920), so it is unlikely to come from either.
- The name peaked at 53rd in the United States in 1934 and left the top 1,000 after 2005.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Behind the Name, “Arlene,” “Arline,” “Charlene” and “Marlene,” with United States popularity figures from Social Security Administration data. https://www.behindthename.com/name/arlene
- Behind the Name, “Arline.” https://www.behindthename.com/name/arline
- “The Bohemian Girl,” Wikipedia, on the opera’s first production, its heroine Arline and the aria “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bohemian_Girl
- “Arleen,” Wikipedia, on the claim that Arlene is a variant of Charlene. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arleen
- Scripture reference: Luke 8:1–3.
