Variant of Jolene, a modern coinage blending Jo and the French suffix -lene.
Jolyne exists at the melodic intersection of Jo — a name in its own right, long used as a friendly, gender-neutral short form of Josephine or Joseph — and the flowing -lene/-leen suffix that swept through English naming in the mid-twentieth century, producing Jolene, Charlene, Darlene, and Marlene. The -lene ending likely derives from Helene (Greek: 'bright,' 'shining light') filtered through French and Irish naming fashions. Jolyne is thus built from components that mean 'Jehovah increases' (Jo, from Hebrew Yosef) and 'light,' though most parents who choose it are drawn more to its sound than its etymology.
The name's most famous cultural touchstone in recent years is Jolyne Cujoh, the protagonist of Part 6 of Hirohiko Araki's long-running manga and anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. As the first female protagonist in the main JoJo storyline, Jolyne became a celebrated figure in global anime culture — fierce, resourceful, and burdened by a complicated family legacy. Her character introduced the name to an entirely new generation of fans who might not have encountered it through Dolly Parton.
Before anime, Jolene (the more common spelling) was immortalized by Dolly Parton's 1973 plea to a flame-haired rival — one of country music's most perfectly constructed songs, in which a woman begs another not to steal her man simply because she can. The name thereafter carried a particular southern American femininity, beautiful and slightly dangerous. Jolyne, with its final 'e' softening the ending, feels slightly more European, a variant that keeps the music while changing the register.