Elen
Elen was given to 8 girls in 2025, #11,204 among girls’ names; 409 Americans have been recorded with it since 1911 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Elen by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Elen?
#11,204 among girls’ names, 2025
Elen rose from #13,400 in 2015 to #11,204 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 3.9 to 5.0 per million.
17 babies in 2022, the peak
Elen peaked in 2022, when 17 girls were given it, #6,792 among girls’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 47% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,204 | 5.0 |
| 2024 | 11 | #9,092 | 6.8 |
| 2023 | 13 | #8,174 | 8.1 |
| 2022 | 17 | #6,792 | 10.4 |
| 2021 | 5 | #15,932 | 3.0 |
| 2020 | 7 | #12,507 | 4.3 |
| 2019 | 12 | #8,725 | 7.1 |
| 2018 | 9 | #10,802 | 5.3 |
| 2017 | 5 | #16,562 | 2.9 |
| 2016 | 7 | #13,305 | 4.0 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 7 | #13,400 | 3.9 |
| 2013 | 10 | #10,480 | 5.7 |
| 2012 | 13 | #8,781 | 7.4 |
| 2011 | 8 | #12,494 | 4.5 |
| 2010 | 12 | #9,390 | 6.8 |
| 2009 | 8 | #12,784 | 4.4 |
| 2008 | 13 | #9,117 | 6.9 |
| 2006 | 9 | #11,711 | 4.7 |
| 2005 | 7 | #13,406 | 3.8 |
| 2004 | 10 | #10,131 | 5.4 |
| 2003 | 7 | #12,795 | 3.8 |
| 2002 | 9 | #10,468 | 5.0 |
| 2001 | 10 | #9,584 | 5.6 |
| 1997 | 5 | #14,400 | 2.9 |
| 1996 | 7 | #10,908 | 4.0 |
| 1995 | 8 | #9,846 | 4.5 |
| 1994 | 5 | #14,087 | 2.8 |
| 1991 | 5 | #13,790 | 2.7 |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,221 | 3.5 |
| 1985 | 6 | #9,654 | 3.5 |
| 1984 | 6 | #9,462 | 3.6 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,286 | 4.2 |
| 1981 | 6 | #9,425 | 3.6 |
| 1976 | 5 | #9,710 | 3.4 |
| 1962 | 5 | #6,845 | 2.5 |
| 1957 | 9 | #4,313 | 4.4 |
| 1954 | 5 | #5,972 | 2.6 |
| 1948 | 6 | #4,823 | 3.5 |
| 1947 | 5 | #5,539 | 2.8 |
| 1933 | 6 | #3,869 | 6.0 |
| 1932 | 5 | #4,601 | 4.7 |
| 1928 | 5 | #4,918 | 4.3 |
| 1926 | 5 | #5,056 | 4.2 |
| 1924 | 7 | #4,117 | 5.6 |
| 1923 | 6 | #4,534 | 5.0 |
| 1921 | 8 | #3,763 | 6.5 |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,540 | 5.0 |
| 1918 | 10 | #3,093 | 8.6 |
| 1917 | 6 | #4,230 | 5.5 |
| 1916 | 5 | #4,620 | 4.8 |
| 1915 | 5 | #4,475 | 5.1 |
| 1914 | 8 | #2,714 | 10.5 |
| 1913 | 7 | #2,614 | 11.2 |
| 1911 | 7 | #2,022 | 16.7 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Elen a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Elen has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 54 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Elen: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Elen, and how old are they?
An estimated 304 Americans named Elen and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (74% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 8 and 31. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,324 people named Elen (1,253 women and girls, 71 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 253 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Elen rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
How common is the spelling Elen?
Elen is a less common spelling of Ellen: SSA has recorded 409 Elen and 276,029 Ellen since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 477,410 babies since 1880, Elen is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 770 babies (1.0%), the fifth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
More about Elen and names like it
- Compare Elen and EllenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sElen peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Elen since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Elen.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Elen alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with EMost given first.