Variant of Arlie or Harley, from Old English meaning 'hare meadow' or 'eagle wood'.
Arlee is a variant spelling of Arley or Harley, names rooted in Old English place-name tradition: the elements hara (hare) and lēah (woodland clearing or meadow) combine to mean "hare's meadow," one of those evocative Anglo-Saxon compound names that paints a specific pastoral landscape. The name began as a surname drawn from English settlements — there are villages called Arley in Warwickshire and Cheshire — before migrating into given-name use in the nineteenth century, following the broader American custom of adopting surnames and place names as first names. Arlee as a distinct spelling has particular resonance in the American South and in the rural West, where it appears in census records from the late 1800s onward as both a male and female given name.
The small town of Arlee, Montana, situated on the Flathead Indian Reservation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, gives the spelling its own geographic anchor in the Mountain West — a place name that likely fed back into personal naming in the surrounding region. The name carries that particular category of American Southern and Western charm: unhurried, land-connected, slightly old-fashioned in a way that feels genuine rather than affected. Contemporary parents are rediscovering Arlee as part of a broader appetite for soft, vintage names that feel authentically American without being stiff.
It wears well on any gender, benefiting from the same gender-neutral current that has lifted Riley and Harley. The double-e ending gives it a gentle, open sound that sits comfortably in the mouth, while the rarity of the spelling keeps it from feeling like a trend.