Serena
Feminine · Latin roots · “calm”
Serena is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 47,450 girls against 16 boys since 1880.
Serena is the Latin word for clear and calm weather, turned into a name and kept in circulation for well over a thousand years. It was borne by a Roman noblewoman of the late fourth century, and Edmund Spenser gave it to a lady in the sixth book of The Faerie Queene in the 1590s. Three open syllables, a stress in the middle, and nothing in it that has to be spelled out loud.
How old is the name Serena?
Serena was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Serena alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 44,500 people named Serena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Serena most popular?
Serena peaked in 2000, reaching #209 nationally. Today it ranks #325, 116 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Where it comes from
From serenus (Latin, 'clear, calm') to Serena
The story of Serena
The Latin adjective serenus described bright, still weather, and by the Roman imperial period it had become a personal name. One documented bearer was Serena, niece of the emperor Theodosius I and wife of the general Stilicho, at the turn of the fifth century. The name stayed alive in Italian and Spanish, where it is still written exactly as it is here, and it reached English readers through literature — Spenser's Faerie Queene of the 1590s has a Serena among its cast. English-speaking families took it up in earnest in the nineteenth century, alongside other Latin names ending in -a, and it has never entirely left.
Meaning
calm, clear, tranquil
From Latin serenus, used of cloudless skies and untroubled water; the same root gives English serene.
How the name formed
- serenusLatin, 'clear, calm'
- SerenaRoman name
- Serena
Related forms: Serena · Serena · Serena · Serena · Serina · Serenity
Pronouncing Serena
suh-REE-nuh
Italian and Spanish speakers say seh-REH-nah, with the middle vowel like the 'e' in 'bed'. Both are correct for the same name; it is worth deciding which one your family will use.
Nicknames for Serena
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 1999 — Serena Williams wins her first US Open
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19981,401 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #209reached in 2000
- Change vs 2022
- +15.7%942 in 2025, from 814
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.
Serena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Serena in Italian — same name
- Serena in Spanish — same name
- Serena in Portuguese — same name
- Serena in German — same name
- Serina in English — spelling variant
- Serenity in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Serenas among us
people named Serena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,706 born in 2025 was named Serena
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 Elma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Serena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elma climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elma's path sketches the road Serena is walking now.
Serena is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Serena is headed
Serena 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.
Serena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Serena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in English, and already familiar to readers as the word serene — rarely needs repeating or clarifying.
- Written identically in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German, so it crosses borders without changing shape.
- A documented record stretching from Roman antiquity through Elizabethan poetry to the present day.
- Has real, long-used short forms — Rena, Sera — for the years when a child wants something briefer.
- Familiar to nearly everyone without being a name a child is likely to share in her own classroom.
- For many people in the US the name belongs first to one extraordinarily famous tennis player. That is a warm association rather than a difficult one, but it is a strong one, and it will come up.
- The meaning is unusually transparent, so expect remarks about calmness and serenity from strangers for years — pleasant enough, but relentless.
- Serina, Sarina and Sirena all exist and sound close, so occasional misspellings are likely even though the name itself is easy to say.
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What they receive
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Serena
Feminine · Latin roots · #325 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Serenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 44,500 people named Serena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Serena in 2025?
- Serena ranks #325 among US girl names in 2025, with 942 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Serena?
- About 1 in every 1,706 US girls born in 2025 was named Serena — 942 in all.
- Will my child share the name Serena with classmates?
- Serena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Serena's chart?
- Serena climbed after 1999 — Serena Williams wins her first US Open.
Ranked beside Serena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alessia#326 · Nina#324 · Navy#327 · Kali#323 · Kendall#328 · Marley#322 · Zuri#328 · Sabrina#321
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Serena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Serena and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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