Milena
Feminine · Slavic roots · “dear”
Milena is built on one of the warmest word-roots in the Slavic languages, mil-, meaning dear or gracious — the same element behind the men's name Milan. It has been in steady use from Prague to Belgrade to Warsaw for centuries, and Italian has kept it too. Three even syllables, all of them easy to say aloud.
How old is the name Milena?
Milena first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Milena is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 7,600 people named Milena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Milena most popular?
Milena peaked in 2019, reaching #675 nationally. Today it ranks #950, 275 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From milŭ (Slavic root: dear, gracious) to Milena
The story of Milena
The root is Slavic: milŭ, "dear" or "gracious", one of the most productive elements in Slavic naming, feeding Milan, Miloš, Ludmila and Milena alike. The name is at home in Czech, Slovak, Polish, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian and Russian, and it settled into Italian as well, where it has been used steadily for generations. Two women carried it into the wider record: Milena Vukotić, who became queen consort of Montenegro in the late nineteenth century, and Milena Jesenská, the Czech journalist and translator active between the world wars. It reached American records early in the twentieth century and has grown mostly in recent decades.
Meaning
dear, gracious, kind
From the Slavic element mil- ("dear, gracious"); Milena works as the feminine counterpart to Milan, which draws on the same root.
How the name formed
- milŭSlavic root: dear, gracious
- Milan
- Milena
Related forms: Milena · Milena · Milena · Milena · Милена (Milena) · Milana
Pronouncing Milena
mee-LEH-nah
Also heard as mih-LAY-nuh in English-speaking countries. Czech and Slovak speakers stress the first syllable instead: MEE-le-na. All three are in genuine use, so it helps to say your preferred version early and often.
Nicknames for Milena
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
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 2019428 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #675reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- −24.5%271 in 2025, from 359
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.
Milena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Milena in Czech / Slovak — same name
- Milena in Polish — same name
- Milena in Serbian / Croatian — same name
- Milena in Italian — same name
- Милена (Milena) in Russian — transliteration
- Milana in Slavic languages — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Milenas among us
people named Milena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,931 born in 2025 was named Milena
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Milena
- #950
- Milena on the 2025 chart
- #595
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Milena went to 271 girls in 2025, but Mileena, Mylena and Milenna are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 394, which makes it the 595th most-given girls’ name of the year — 355 places above the chart.
- Milena271
- Mileena98
- Mylena13
- Milenna12
About 1 girl in 4,079 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,931 for Milena itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Felisha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Milena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Felisha climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Felisha's path sketches the road Milena is walking now.
Milena 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 Milena is headed
Milena should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Milena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Milena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds in most languages — six letters, no silent ones, no doubled consonants to explain.
- Comes with short forms that already exist independently: Mila and Lena are both familiar names on their own.
- Works unchanged in Czech, Polish, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Russian and Italian — useful across a multilingual family.
- A centuries-long record in Slavic Europe, so it is inherited rather than invented.
- Familiar in sound while still uncommon in American classrooms.
- Three competing stress patterns — mee-LEH-nah, mih-LAY-nuh and MEE-le-na — mean she will hear her name said several different ways and will need to choose one to correct people toward.
- It sits close to Melina, Milana and Malena, and gets swapped with all three in spelling and in speech.
- Mila, the natural short form, is far more common in the US than Milena itself, so she may find herself called Mila by default and sharing that with others.
- The American wave is recent rather than long-running, so the name reads as new here even though it is old in Europe.
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Milena
Feminine · Slavic roots · #950 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Milenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,600 people named Milena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Milena?
- Milena is the most-used spelling in US records — 271 of the 394 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Mileena, Mylena and Milenna.
- How popular is the name Milena in 2025?
- Milena ranks #950 among US girl names in 2025, with 271 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Milena?
- About 1 in every 5,931 US girls born in 2025 was named Milena — 271 in all.
- Will my child share the name Milena with classmates?
- Milena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Milena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Yuna#950 · Zyla#950 · Sariah#950 · Marcella#948 · Sky#948 · Madalyn#946 · Rosalee#954 · Sunday#946
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Milena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Milena and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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