Arline

Meaning of Arline

Arline is a feminine English-language name etymologically linked to the Germanic root arn- “eagle” combined with the diminutive suffix -lind and, by extension, regarded as a variant of Arlene, itself a 20th-century elaboration on the French Arlette. It is uniformly articulated as AR-leen (IPA: /ˈɑː.lin/ in British English; /ˈɑr.lin/ in American English), exhibiting an identical phonemic profile across major Anglo-American dialects. Morphologically, the name’s disyllabic structure—comprising the onset AR- and the coda -line—yields a closed–open syllable pattern that facilitates its transcription in both Received Pronunciation and General American. Analysis of Illinois birth-registration data from 1910 through 1947 reveals that Arline attained its peak popularity in 1910, when five recorded occurrences secured it the 103rd rank, before entering a period of gradual decline: by the mid-1940s it fluctuated between ranks in the mid-150s to high-180s, and by 1947 it stood at 203. Situated within the corpus of Anglo-American anthroponymy, Arline remains of technical interest for its precise morphological composition and its discrete diachronic usage trajectory.