Faylene
A feminine name of English origin meaning "meadow of the ring".
Name Census estimates that about 125 living Americans carry the first name Faylene. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Faylene today is around 75 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Faylene births was 1941 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Faylene. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Faylene is about 75 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Faylenes were born before 1961.
People living today
125
~ 1 in 2,742,035 Americans
Peak year
1941
12 babies that year
Average age
75
years old
1964 SSA rank
#4,732
Tracked since 1921
Census
Faylene in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 255 people with the first name Faylene, which placed it at #32,783 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#32,783
National first-name rank
People counted
255
255 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Faylene
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Faylene is White at 77.6%. The next largest groups are Black (7.8%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (7.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Faylene described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Faylene at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.6% · 198
- Black or African American7.8% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native7.1% · 18
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 8
- Two or more races3.1% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 3
Popularity
Faylene: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Faylene from the 1920s through to the 1960s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 93 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Faylene by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Faylene during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Faylenes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Faylene
The name Faylene is a relatively modern invention, likely originating in the 20th century as a combination of the names Faye and Lyn or Lena. It does not have a clear cultural or linguistic origin, but appears to be an English-language name created in English-speaking regions like the United States or United Kingdom.
While the name Faylene itself does not have a long historical record, its component names Faye and Lyn/Lena have deeper roots. Faye is derived from the French word "fée" meaning "fairy", and has been used as a given name since the 19th century. Lyn and Lena are both variants of the ancient Greek name Lene, meaning "light" or "bright".
There are no known references to the name Faylene in ancient texts, religious scriptures, or historical records prior to the 20th century. The earliest recorded examples of the name are likely found in birth records and census data from the mid-to-late 1900s.
Throughout history, there are a few notable individuals who have borne the name Faylene, although it remains relatively uncommon. One example is Faylene Gonia, an American artist and painter born in 1942. Another is Faylene Parton, the sister of country music legend Dolly Parton, born in 1945.
Other notable individuals with the name Faylene include Faylene Tanner, an American author and illustrator of children's books born in 1942, and Faylene Tocker, a Canadian actress and singer born in 1960. Faylene Gurule was also a prominent Native American artist and potter from the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico, born in 1970.
People
Faylene + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Faylene as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Faylene: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Faylene?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 125 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Faylene going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,742,035 US residents.
Is Faylene a common name?
We classify Faylene as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 297 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Faylene most popular?
The single biggest year for Faylene was 1941, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Faylene is about 75 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Faylene in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 255 people with the name Faylene, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,783 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Faylene in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Faylene?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Faylene appears almost entirely female. Of the 259 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Faylene?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Faylene is White at 77.6%. The next largest groups are Black (7.8%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (7.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Faylene most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Faylene in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.6% (198 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Faylene in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Faylene a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Faylene in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Faylene still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Faylene in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Faylene can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Faylene?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.