Salena
Feminine · “Greek Selene”
There is an element in the periodic table named after the moon because of the element next to it. Berzelius found selenium in 1817 alongside tellurium, which had been named for the earth, so he named his for Selene and made the pair permanent.
How old is the name Salena?
Salena first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Salena alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 4,800 people named Salena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Salena most popular?
Salena peaked in 1977, reaching #796 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 9,311 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Selene to Salena
The story of Salena
Chemistry names elements after places, people, planets and gods, and occasionally the naming is a joke between neighbors. Tellurium, isolated in the 1780s, was named from tellus, the earth. When Jons Jacob Berzelius identified a related element in 1817 he named it selenium after Selene, the moon, precisely because it kept turning up with tellurium, and the pair have been the earth and the moon of the periodic table ever since. Selene herself is the Titaness who drives the moon across the sky, sister of Helios and Eos, and her name comes from a word meaning brightness or gleam. The personal name reached English through Latin and French, took the spellings Selina and Selena, and Salena is a twentieth-century American respelling of the same sound.
Meaning
Greek Selene, the moon
Salena is a respelling of Selena or Selina, from Greek Selene, the moon and the goddess of it, from selas, brightness. Selina in English may also come by a separate route from Celia. The peak of this spelling is 1977.
How the name formed
- Selene
- Selena
- Salena
Related forms: Selena · Selina · Selene
Pronouncing Salena
suh-LEE-nuh
Three syllables, stress on the second. Selena, Selina and Salena are homophones in American speech; the first vowel is a schwa in all three.
Nicknames for Salena
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
- 1889
- Most girls named
- 1977188 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #796reached in 1977
- Change vs 2023
- −35.7%9 in 2025, from 14
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.
Salena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Selena in Spanish — spelling variant
- Selina in English — spelling variant
- Selene in Greek — same name
Salenas among us
people named Salena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Salena
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 Cathi test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Salena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cathi climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cathi's path sketches the road Salena is walking now.
Salena 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
Salena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Salena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Lena works as a short form and as a full name.
- The Greek meaning is documented and concrete.
- Three syllables with a clear central stress.
- Selena is the standard spelling and much more common.
- The first vowel is unstressed, so the spelling has to be dictated.
- The 1977 peak dates this form.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Salena 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.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Salena? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Salena
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Salenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,800 people named Salena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Salena in 2025?
- Salena ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Salena?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Salena — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Salena with classmates?
- Salena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Salena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Salena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Salena and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle