Merlene
2,379 recorded births · active 1913–1984
Compare Merlene →Living-age distribution
The median living Merlene is 76. If you meet a Merlene, there's about a 70% chance they're between 64 and 87 years old.
Popularity arc
Peak Merlene: 1940. Down 100% from peak.
Gender balance
Merlene is almost always given to female babies — 100% female.
Rarity
Merlene ranks #6,819 out of 105,966 names ever recorded by the SSA.
Geographic fingerprint
Merlenes are 0.5x more common in the South than the national average.
Predictive modeling
Three statistical models, all fit to Merlene's own SSA history plus the historical behavior of every other name in the dataset.
Peak popularity prediction
Merlene's modeled peak was #1,311 in 1940 — its trend isn't projected to beat that.
Not enough continuous recent history to project a peak rank.
Name life-cycle stage
A rule-based classifier over recent growth, momentum, and peak proximity.
Merlene hasn't shown up in SSA records since 1984 — fewer than 5 babies have gotten the name in any year since, which is below what the SSA even reports.
Popularity survival model
Once a name reaches a rank tier, how long does it typically stay there before falling out?
Built from a Kaplan-Meier survival curve: every historical run any name has ever had above this tier, with runs still ongoing today counted as still in progress rather than as an exit.Merlene isn't currently in the Top 100 tier. Estimated chance of entering it in the forecast window: 0%.
If Merlene enters Top 100, chance it's still there after:
Names that do enter Top 100 have historically stayed a median of ~19 years. Based on 668 historical Top 100 runs across every name in the dataset.