Irena
Feminine · “Peace”
Irena is peace in Greek, wearing Slavic clothes. Eirēnē was a goddess of peace, one of the Horae, and the word passed into Christian use through an empress and several martyrs before Poland, Czech lands and Russia made it one of their ordinary names.
How old is the name Irena?
Irena was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Irena alive today was born around 1974, making them about 51 years old. About 1,500 people named Irena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Irena most popular?
Irena peaked in 1882, reaching #560 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 4,678 places below that high. See the whole 1882 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Eirēnē to Irena
The story of Irena
Eirene was one of the Horae, the daughters of Zeus and Themis who governed the seasons and the order of things, and her name was an ordinary Greek word before it was anyone's. Christians took it early: Saint Irene of Thessalonica was martyred under Diocletian, and the Empress Irene ruled Byzantium in her own right at the end of the eighth century. Slavic Christianity carried it north, and Irena became ordinary in Poland, Bohemia, Slovenia and Lithuania. Its American peak in the 1880s belongs to central and eastern European immigration; the Polish social worker Irena Sendler, who took children out of the Warsaw ghetto, is its best-known twentieth-century bearer.
Meaning
Peace
From Greek eirēnē, peace, the ordinary word and the name of the goddess who personified it. The reading is settled and undisputed. Irena is the Slavic and Baltic form; Irene is the Greek and English one, Irina the Russian.
How the name formed
- Eirēnē
- Irene
- Irena
Related forms: Εἰρήνη · Irena · Irina · Irene · Irene · Irena
Pronouncing Irena
ee-REH-nah
Three syllables, stress in the middle, in Polish and Czech. English speakers often say eye-REE-nuh, following Irene, which no Slavic speaker would recognize.
Nicknames for Irena
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 191933 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #560reached in 1882
- Change vs 2022
- +4.3%24 in 2025, from 23
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.
Irena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Εἰρήνη in Greek — transliteration
- Irena in Polish — same name
- Irina in Russian — related form
- Irene in English — related form
- Irene in Italian — related form
- Irena in Lithuanian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York.
Irenas among us
people named Irena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Irena
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Irena 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
Irena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Irena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, short and about as good as a meaning gets.
- Ira, Rena and Renia are all warm, established short forms.
- It is spelled the same across most of central and eastern Europe.
- English and Slavic speakers say it entirely differently.
- Irene, Irina and Irena will be written for each other.
- It is strongly associated with the immigrant generation of the late nineteenth century in American ears.
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What they receive
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Irena
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Irenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Irena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Irena in 2025?
- Irena ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Irena?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Irena — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Irena with classmates?
- Irena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Irena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Yashika#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Irena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Irena and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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