Form of Helen, from Greek helene, "torch" — torch; bright. The standard Spanish, Italian, Russian and Romanian spelling.
Elena ranks 42nd among American girls in 2025, with 4,842 born that year. Its best year was 2025, when 4,842 babies were given the name, ranking 42nd. The typical living American called Elena is about 14 years old today. It is relatively most common in New Mexico, where it accounts for 0.34% of births.
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state name files, 2025 release, and the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales. Etymology researched and written by our editors. Living-population and median-age figures are our own estimates, described in the methodology.