Athena
Feminine
Few names come with a temple attached. Athena was worshipped on the Acropolis in Athens, and the Parthenon was built for her in the fifth century BC — the name has been written down, in one alphabet or another, for well over three thousand years. In English it moves in a long, even wave: uh-THEE-nuh, three syllables with the weight in the middle.
How old is the name Athena?
Athena first appears in US birth records in 1902 — 123 years ago. The typical Athena is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 51,500 people named Athena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Athena most popular?
Athena peaked in 2023, reaching #76 nationally. Today it ranks #109, 33 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Where it comes from
From a-ta-na (Mycenaean Greek, Linear B) to Athena
The story of Athena
Athena belonged first to Bronze Age Greece, named on clay tablets before Homer, and the Iliad and Odyssey give her the standing epithet glaukopis — bright-eyed, or owl-eyed, which is why the owl became hers. Athens took her as its patron, struck her on its coins, and built the Parthenon on the hill above the city for her. The Romans identified her with Minerva, and through Latin literature the Greek form traveled into English as a word for the goddess long before anyone thought to give it to a child. Its use as a given name in the English-speaking world is a much later development, part of the long modern habit of taking classical names down off the shelf.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name is older than Greek etymology can reach. It appears in Mycenaean Linear B tablets from Knossos as a-ta-na-po-ti-ni-ja, and scholars have never settled whether the goddess was named for the city of Athens or the city for the goddess — most now treat both as pre-Greek, from a language spoken in the region before Greek arrived. Plato's dialogue Cratylus offers an ancient guess, reading it as 'divine mind', but that is Greek speculation about an already-old word rather than a recovered origin. What is documented is the role, not the root: Athena as goddess of wisdom, craft, weaving and strategy in war.
How the name formed
- a-ta-naMycenaean Greek, Linear B
- AthanaDoric Greek
- Athēnē / AthēnaiaAttic Greek
- AthenaLatin
- AthenaEnglish
Related forms: Αθηνά (Athiná) · Atenea · Atena · Athéna · Atena · Афина (Afina)
Pronouncing Athena
uh-THEE-nuh
Standard in English. Greek speakers say it ah-thee-NAH, with the stress on the last syllable — worth knowing if there is Greek family involved, since both are correct in their own language.
Nicknames for Athena
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1902
- Most girls named
- 20233,001 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #76reached in 2023
- Change vs 2023
- −17.5%2,477 in 2025, from 3,001
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Athena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Αθηνά (Athiná) in Greek — transliteration
- Atenea in Spanish — same name
- Atena in Italian — same name
- Athéna in French — spelling variant
- Atena in Portuguese — same name
- Афина (Afina) in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from Statistics Canada, Office for National Statistics. Sources
Athenas among us
people named Athena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 649 born in 2025 was named Athena
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Carla test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Athena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carla climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carla's path sketches the road Athena is walking now.
Athena sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Athena is headed
Athena should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Athena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Athena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in English, and recognized on sight across Europe and the Americas thanks to the goddess — very little correcting to do.
- A documented written record stretching from Bronze Age clay tablets to today, unbroken and never reinvented.
- Charts in Canada and England and Wales as well as the US, so it travels without becoming a different name.
- Three syllables ending in -a, which fits comfortably alongside most one- and two-syllable surnames.
- Several workable short forms — Thena, Attie, Tina — without one being compulsory.
- The mythology comes with it. Every school unit on ancient Greece, every owl joke, every 'goddess of wisdom' remark — most children take this in stride, but it is a lifetime of the same three comments.
- English and Greek stress the name differently, uh-THEE-nuh against ah-thee-NAH, and a Greek-speaking family may also prefer the spelling Athina. Worth agreeing on early.
- It is far more common among children now than among adults, so some people will hear it as a new name and others as a very old one. Both are right.
- Rare enough in any one classroom that she will likely be the only Athena, which suits some children and not others.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Athena to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Athena
Feminine · #109 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Athenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 51,500 people named Athena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Athena in 2025?
- Athena ranks #109 among US girl names in 2025, with 2,477 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Athena?
- About 1 in every 649 US girls born in 2025 was named Athena — 2,477 in all.
- Will my child share the name Athena with classmates?
- Athena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Athena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Juliette#110 · Cecilia#108 · Catalina#111 · Anna#107 · Margaret#112 · Parker#106 · Gabriella#105 · Cora#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Athena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Athena and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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