Marlene is a German feminine given name. It is derived from Maria combined with Magdalene. It was popularized by actress and singer Marlene Dietrich. It also came into wider use in the 1940s due to the popular song Lili Marlene. The traditional German pronunciation is mar-LAY-nuh. The North American English pronunciation of the name is mar-LEEN. Phonetic variants include Marlena and Marleen.
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Usage
Marlene has been a well-used name throughout the Western world. In the United States, it was among the top 100 names for newborn girls between 1931 and 1942, was among the top 200 names between 1943 and 1959, and among the top 1,000 names between 1960 and 2012. It was a top 1,000 name for girls in France between 1933 and 2002. It ranked among the top 100 names given to girls in Austria between 1984 and 2021 and was a top 100 name for newborn girls in Germany between 2017 and 2022. It ranked among the top 1,000 names for girls in Brazil between 1930 and 2000.
Notable people
Politics
Marlene Attzs, Trinidadian senator
Marlene Brady, American politician from Wyoming
Marlene Catterall, Canadian Member of Parliament 1988–2005
Marlene Cowling, Canadian Member of Parliament 1993–1997
Marlene Graham, member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 1997–2004
Marlene Jennings, Canadian Member of Parliament, 1997–2011
Marlene Johnson, Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota 1983–1991
Marlene Lenz, German Member of the Bundestag and Member of the European Parliament
Marléne Lund Kopparklint, Swedish Member of Parliament 2018-present
Marlene McDonald, Trinidadian Member of Parliament
Marlène Zebango, Burkinabé politician
Academia
Marlene Belfort, who helped discover self-splicing introns in bacteriophage DNA
Marlene Dobkin de Rios (1939–2012), American cultural anthropologist, medical anthropologist, and psychotherapist
Marlene Scardamalia, education researcher
Marlène Zarader, French philosopher
Marlene Zuk, evolutionary biologist
Sports
Marlene Ahrens, Chilean athlete
Marlène Boissonnault, (born 1997), Canadian ice hockey goaltender
Marlene Elejarde, Cuban sprinter
Marlene Gerson (born 1940), South African tennis player
Marlene Hagge, American professional golfer
Marlène Harnois (born 1986), French taekwondo practitioner
Marlene Matthews, Australian Olympic sprinter
Marlene Slebsager, Danish cricketer
Marlene Streit, Canadian amateur golfer
Marlene Thomsen, Danish badminton player
Marlene Weingärtner (born 1980), German tennis player
Entertainment
Marlene, Brazilian singer
Marlene Callahan, also known as Marlene Wallace
Marlene Charell, German entertainer
Marlene Daudén, Filipina drama actress
Marlene Dietrich, German actress and entertainer
Marlene Enright, Irish singer
Marlene Favela, Mexican actress
Marlene Janssen, American model
Marlène Jobert, French actress
Marlene Morreis, Austrian actress
Marlene Morrow, American model
Marlene Schmidt, Miss Universe in 1961
Marlene van Niekerk, writer
Marlene Warfield, American actress
Arts
Marlene Dumas, South African painter
Marlene Neubauer-Woerner, German sculptor
Marlene Reidel, German artist
Others
Marlene (Burmese businesswoman), also known as Nang Kham Noung
Marlene Garcia-Esperat, murdered journalist
Marlene Lehnberg, also known as The Scissor Murderess
Fictional characters
Marlene (Final Fantasy VII)
Marlene, from The Last of Us video game series
Marlene, a Dauntless-born character in Veronica Roth's Divergent
Marlene Alraune, of the Marvel Universe
Marlene Griggs-Knope, from American comedy series Parks and Recreation
Marlene Kratz, from Australian soap opera Neighbours
Marlene Rush, from the Robotech Series
Marlene the otter, character in the animated TV show The Penguins of Madagascar
Marlene McFly, Marty McFly's daughter in Back to the Future II
Marlene McKinnon, character in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series
Marlene Boyce, character in Only Fools and Horses and The Green Green Grass