Arlen

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Арлен in KG Kyrgyzstan, KZ Kazakhstan, RU Russia and 2 more, Arlene in ES Spain and Årlén in SE Sweden.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Arlen is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name34K records spelled Arlen10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Nicaragua, Mexico, United States, Philippines

  Also written Arlén, Arlèn, Arlën, Ärlën, Årlên

• a separate given name2.3K records spelled Arlen4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India

  Also written Arlén, Árlen, Arlèn

• French given name2.1K records spelled Arlen3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Philippines, Burkina Faso

  Also written Árlen, Arlèn

• Indonesian given name1.1K records spelled Arlen3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, Malaysia

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Ârlên

48 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 114 years between 1909–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Arlen Specterb. 1930USAmerican politician (1930–2012)
• Clarence Arlen Beamb. 1930USUnited States federal judge
• Arlen Erdahlb. 1931USAmerican politician (1931–2023)
• Arlen F. Gregoriob. 1931USAmerican politician
• Bucky Bockhornb. 1933USnot in their usual nameAmerican basketball player
• Arlen Blyumb. 1933RUSoviet literary historian (1933-2011)
• Arlen Nessb. 1939USAmerican entrepreneur and motorcyclist (1939–2019)
• Gary Kildallb. 1942USnot in their usual nameAmerican computer scientist and entrepreneur (1942–1994)
• Arlen Siub. 1955NINicaraguan revolutionary (1955-1975)
• Arlen Escarpetab. 1980BZBelizean actor

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 529 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Arlen?

We estimate roughly 103 thousand people bear Arlen (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Arlen have the most bearers?

We estimate about 85 thousand people bear Arlen in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled arlen.

Where is Arlen most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Arlen is densest in Guyana — about 1 in 2.7 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Arlen compared with other names?

In Kyrgyzstan, Arlen is the 973rd most common given name of 140,295 given names recorded there.

Is Arlen a male or female name?

Arlen is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Arlen mean?

Recorded meaning: an alteration of the German surname Erlen.