Jelena
Jelena was given to 26 girls in 2025, #5,029 among girls’ names; 1,633 Americans have been recorded with it since 1959 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,610 Americans named Jelena and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 10 and 28.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Jelena by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Jelena mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Jelena is “a transliteration of the Russian female given name Еле́на (Jeléna), equivalent to Helen.”
Also “a transliteration of the Pannonian Rusyn female given name Єлена (Jelena), equivalent to Helen.”
Borrowed from Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian Еле́на (Jeléna) and Pannonian Rusyn Єлена (Jelena), from Latin Helena, from Ancient Greek Ἑλένη (Helénē). Doublet of Helen and Ellen.
/jɛˈleɪnə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Jelena?
#5,029 among girls’ names, 2025
Jelena fell from #3,320 in 2015 to #5,029 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 27.4 to 16.2 per million.
68 babies in 2017, the peak
Jelena peaked in 2017, when 68 girls were given it, #2,583 among girls’ names. The 26 births of 2025 are 38% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 26 | #5,029 | 16.2 |
| 2024 | 32 | #4,424 | 19.8 |
| 2023 | 39 | #3,868 | 24.3 |
| 2022 | 37 | #3,998 | 22.6 |
| 2021 | 29 | #4,670 | 17.7 |
| 2020 | 38 | #3,807 | 23.5 |
| 2019 | 39 | #3,819 | 23.2 |
| 2018 | 52 | #3,133 | 30.6 |
| 2017 | 68 | #2,583 | 39.4 |
| 2016 | 58 | #2,921 | 32.7 |
Every recorded year (61)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 49 | #3,320 | 27.4 |
| 2014 | 58 | #2,946 | 32.5 |
| 2013 | 47 | #3,380 | 26.8 |
| 2012 | 51 | #3,238 | 29.0 |
| 2011 | 58 | #2,966 | 33.0 |
| 2010 | 57 | #2,993 | 32.1 |
| 2009 | 46 | #3,535 | 25.0 |
| 2008 | 57 | #3,035 | 30.1 |
| 2007 | 51 | #3,304 | 26.5 |
| 2006 | 49 | #3,334 | 25.8 |
| 2005 | 44 | #3,428 | 23.8 |
| 2004 | 48 | #3,192 | 26.1 |
| 2003 | 45 | #3,256 | 24.6 |
| 2002 | 40 | #3,421 | 22.3 |
| 2001 | 21 | #5,439 | 11.7 |
| 2000 | 31 | #4,015 | 17.1 |
| 1999 | 29 | #4,014 | 16.3 |
| 1998 | 29 | #3,960 | 16.4 |
| 1997 | 19 | #5,295 | 10.9 |
| 1996 | 24 | #4,364 | 13.7 |
| 1995 | 24 | #4,264 | 13.6 |
| 1994 | 16 | #5,824 | 9.0 |
| 1993 | 23 | #4,439 | 12.7 |
| 1992 | 20 | #4,926 | 10.8 |
| 1991 | 14 | #6,376 | 7.5 |
| 1990 | 18 | #5,145 | 9.5 |
| 1989 | 10 | #7,661 | 5.4 |
| 1988 | 14 | #5,723 | 7.9 |
| 1987 | 13 | #5,724 | 7.5 |
| 1986 | 12 | #5,915 | 7.0 |
| 1985 | 6 | #9,799 | 3.5 |
| 1983 | 11 | #5,962 | 6.6 |
| 1982 | 14 | #5,037 | 8.3 |
| 1981 | 21 | #3,782 | 12.6 |
| 1980 | 13 | #5,349 | 7.8 |
| 1979 | 15 | #4,708 | 9.3 |
| 1978 | 10 | #6,122 | 6.5 |
| 1977 | 17 | #4,122 | 11.1 |
| 1976 | 10 | #5,757 | 6.8 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,473 | 4.8 |
| 1974 | 9 | #5,942 | 6.1 |
| 1973 | 11 | #5,011 | 7.5 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,635 | 3.9 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,890 | 4.2 |
| 1970 | 10 | #5,198 | 5.7 |
| 1969 | 5 | #7,922 | 3.0 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,458 | 3.0 |
| 1965 | 6 | #6,092 | 3.4 |
| 1964 | 5 | #7,186 | 2.6 |
| 1962 | 5 | #6,971 | 2.5 |
| 1959 | 5 | #6,646 | 2.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Jelena a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Jelena has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 61 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Jelena: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Jelena, and how old are they?
1,610 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,633 Americans ever recorded as Jelena. The median Jelena alive today is 18 years old; half are between 10 and 28.
The 2020 Census counted 3,070 people named Jelena (3,070 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,422 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 13 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 123 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 234 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 668 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 568 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Jelena born?
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Jelena with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 1,940 babies since 1880, Jelena is the most given (84% of them). In 2025 it was given to 26 of their 32 babies (81%), again the most given.
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.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Jelena
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Jelena and names like it
- Compare Jelena and JelinaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sJelena peaked in 2017.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Jelena since 1910.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Jelena.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Jelena alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with JMost given first.