Elena
Feminine
Elena is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 108,013 girls against 104 boys since 1880.
Elena is the form that Helena took in Italian, Spanish, Romanian and Russian mouths — three syllables, all vowels open, no hard consonant anywhere in it. It has been written on Venetian, Iberian and Balkan records for centuries, and it arrives in English already familiar, needing no explanation and no spelling out of its parts.
How old is the name Elena?
Elena was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Elena alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 100,000 people named Elena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elena most popular?
Elena peaked in 2025, reaching #42 nationally. Today it ranks #42, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Elena appears on these lists:
- Distinctly American names
- America's top 100 names right now
- Vowel names: soft starts from A to O
- Gorgeous — and about to be everywhere
- Names at their all-time peak, right now
- Three-syllable names with room to move
- all guides
Works in Spanish & Latino and Italian families too:
Where it comes from
From Helenē to Elena
The story of Elena
The name begins in Greek as Helenē, borne by the figure at the center of Homer's Iliad, and passes into Latin as Helena. From Latin it settled across the Romance and Slavic worlds, losing its initial H along the way: Elena in Italian, Spanish and Romanian, Yelena in Russian. It has been in continuous educated use in Italy since at least the seventeenth century, when the Venetian philosopher Elena Cornaro Piscopia became one of the first women anywhere to take a university doctorate. English speakers have used Helen and Helena for far longer, but Elena is the spelling that traveled with Italian, Spanish-speaking and Eastern European families, and it has been present in American records for well over a century.
Meaningscholars disagree
Most often read as "torch" or "light", though the root is genuinely disputed
Elena goes back to Greek Helenē, and nobody has settled what that word meant. The two long-standing readings connect it to helenē, a torch, and to selas, brightness or light; a third links it to the moon-name Selene. The name is far older than the explanations offered for it, which is why the explanations compete.
Cultural footprint
Elena Ferrante (b. 1943) — Mystery-shrouded author of My Brilliant Friend
Elena Kagan (b. 1960) — US Supreme Court justice
Elena Cornaro Piscopia (b. 1646) — First woman ever to earn a doctoral degree (Padua, 1678)
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Helenē
- Helena
- Elena
Related forms: Helen · Helena · Hélène · Yelena · Ileana · Ilona
Pronouncing Elena
eh-LAY-nuh
Also widely said eh-LEH-nah, closer to the Spanish and Italian, and some families stress the first syllable: EH-leh-nah. All three are established, so it is worth deciding which one you want and saying it that way from the start.
Nicknames for Elena
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 20254,836 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #42reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +12.7%4,836 in 2025, from 4,290
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.
Elena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Helen in English — same name
- Helena in Latin / Portuguese — same name
- Hélène in French — same name
- Yelena in Russian — transliteration
- Ileana in Romanian — related form
- Ilona in Hungarian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from INSEE, Statistics Canada. Sources
Elenas among us
people named Elena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 332 born in 2025 was named Elena
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 Diana test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Diana climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Diana's path sketches the road Elena is walking now.
Elena is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Elena is headed
Elena 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.
Elena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The same spelling works in Italian, Spanish, Romanian and Russian-speaking families, with no adjustment and no explanation needed.
- Several long-established short forms already exist — Ellie, Lena, Elle — so nothing has to be invented.
- Part of the Helen family, one of the oldest documented name lines in Europe, in unbroken use since ancient Greek.
- Familiar to American ears without crowding a classroom, and currently gaining ground rather than fading.
- Three pronunciations are all correct, and Elena will spend some of her life correcting people who chose a different one.
- It sits in a crowded field of near-identical spellings — Elaina, Alaina, Helena, Alayna — so expect to spell it aloud fairly often.
- The name is climbing steadily, so it is likely to feel more common by the time she reaches school than it does now.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Elena to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Elena
Feminine · #42 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100,000 people named Elena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Elena in 2025?
- Elena ranks #42 among US girl names in 2025, with 4,836 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Elena?
- About 1 in every 332 US girls born in 2025 was named Elena — 4,836 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elena with classmates?
- Elena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Abigail#41 · Mila#43 · Madison#40 · Willow#44 · Emilia#45 · Ivy#39 · Grace#38 · Nova#46
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elena 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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