In 2025, 4,836 US girls were named Elena, making it the 42nd most common girls’ name of the year, up 4 places from #46 in 2024. That is 259 more than the 4,577 girls named Elena in 2024. Its best rank for girls was #42, reached in this year, 2025. That year also had the most girls given the name: 4,836. For comparison, it was #106 in 2015 and #501 in 1950.
Social Security card records list Elena in 144 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1880 with 8 babies. In all, 108,117 US babies have been given the name, 99.9% of them girls and 0.1% boys. Its busiest decade was the 2010s, with 28,809 babies named Elena.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 40,989 US girls were named Elena; the busiest of those years was 2025, with 4,836. In 2025 that was about 1 in 332 of the girls in SSA’s list for the year.
Among the states, Elena ranked highest in New Mexico in 2025, at #14 for girls there. It was in the top 100 in 41 states (counting DC). Related spellings in the SSA files include Helen (1,027,307 babies since 1880), Ellen (276,029 babies since 1880), Lena (146,805 babies since 1880) and Helena (40,412 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Eleana, Elona and Eleyna are summarised on this page. The open nickname list we use links it to Helen.
Meaning
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Wikidata records this spelling as a given name in Breton, Dutch, Italian, Latvian, Romanian and Spanish. That is where the name is used, not necessarily where it comes from.