Glena
Feminine
Glena is a Gaelic word with an English ending, and it belongs to a small family of names that America made out of Scottish landscape words. The best-known woman to carry the fuller form was a golfer who won her national championship six times and had a trophy named after her while she was still alive.
How old is the name Glena?
Glena first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Glena alive today was born around 1940, making them about 85 years old. About 500 people named Glena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Glena most popular?
Glena peaked in 1934, reaching #1409 nationally. See the whole 1934 chart.
Where it comes from
From Gaelic gleann, a narrow valley, borrowed into English to Glena
The story of Glena
Glenna Collett Vare won the United States Women's Amateur six times, a record nobody has beaten, and she did it in an era when a woman golfer was expected to be decorative. She hit the ball a great distance, played to win, and was called the female Bobby Jones by newspapers that could not think of another way to explain her. The trophy given every year to the professional with the lowest scoring average carries her married name, which means it is handed out to the best golfer of each season by a woman most of them have never heard of.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The obvious front is glen, the Gaelic word for a narrow valley that English borrowed whole and never translated. Whether Glena is a feminine built directly on that, a shortening of Glenda, or a spelling of a Latin-looking name that happens to land on the same letters is not recorded. All three were live options in the decades this name appears, and the record carries the result without the reasoning.
How the name formed
- Gaelic gleann, a narrow valley, borrowed into English
- Glen used as an American first name for men
- Glenna and Glena appear as feminine forms
- an American golfer makes the fuller form famous
- peaks between the wars and fades
Related forms: Glenna · Gleann · Glenda
Pronouncing Glena
GLEN-uh
Two syllables, stress at the front, first vowel as in glen. The single n leaves the door open to GLEE-nuh, which some readers produce and no family intends.
Nicknames for Glena
Moderate
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
- 1898
- Most girls named
- 193427 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1409reached in 1934
- Change vs 1983
- −16.7%5 in 1992, from 6
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.
Glena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Glenna in English — spelling variant
- Gleann in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Glenda in English — related form
Glenas among us
people named Glena are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Glena sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short, soft and read correctly by almost everyone at first sight.
- Lena is waiting inside it and is thoroughly current again.
- The Gaelic word behind it is concrete and easy to picture, which abstract names are not.
- Glenna is commoner and the second n will be added back regularly.
- The single n invites a long first vowel from readers who have not met the name.
- It is firmly dated to the first half of the last century.
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Glena
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Glenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Glena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Glena in 2025?
- Glena is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Glena with classmates?
- Glena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More G names
The most-given names starting with G, all years combined.
Grace#38 · Gloria#654 · Gladys#3211 · Geraldine#2438 · Gail#8362 · Gertrude#6546 · Georgia#99 · Gina#2076
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Glena? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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