Yelena
Yelena was given to 112 girls in 2025, #1,807 among girls’ names; 1,626 Americans have been recorded with it since 1961 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,610 Americans named Yelena and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 5 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Yelena by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Yelena mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Yelena is “a transliteration of the Bulgarian, Macedonian, or Russian female given name Еле́на (Eléna), equivalent to Helen.”
From Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian Еле́на (Jeléna), from Latin Helena, from Ancient Greek Ἑλένη (Helénē). Doublet of Helena.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Yelena?
#1,807 among girls’ names, 2025
Yelena rose from #3,912 in 2015 to #1,807 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 21.8 to 69.7 per million.
145 babies in 2022, the peak
Yelena peaked in 2022, when 145 girls were given it, #1,504 among girls’ names. The 112 births of 2025 are 77% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 112 | #1,807 | 69.7 |
| 2024 | 72 | #2,506 | 44.4 |
| 2023 | 71 | #2,515 | 44.2 |
| 2022 | 145 | #1,504 | 88.4 |
| 2021 | 62 | #2,783 | 37.8 |
| 2020 | 29 | #4,641 | 17.9 |
| 2019 | 38 | #3,915 | 22.6 |
| 2018 | 31 | #4,555 | 18.2 |
| 2017 | 43 | #3,623 | 24.9 |
| 2016 | 56 | #3,009 | 31.6 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 39 | #3,912 | 21.8 |
| 2014 | 48 | #3,365 | 26.9 |
| 2013 | 42 | #3,697 | 23.9 |
| 2012 | 36 | #4,207 | 20.4 |
| 2011 | 48 | #3,404 | 27.3 |
| 2010 | 41 | #3,810 | 23.1 |
| 2009 | 52 | #3,246 | 28.3 |
| 2008 | 70 | #2,662 | 37.0 |
| 2007 | 57 | #3,094 | 29.6 |
| 2006 | 50 | #3,312 | 26.3 |
| 2005 | 48 | #3,252 | 26.0 |
| 2004 | 53 | #2,992 | 28.9 |
| 2003 | 66 | #2,492 | 36.1 |
| 2002 | 29 | #4,373 | 16.1 |
| 2001 | 28 | #4,436 | 15.6 |
| 2000 | 27 | #4,516 | 14.9 |
| 1999 | 10 | #9,458 | 5.6 |
| 1998 | 18 | #5,789 | 10.2 |
| 1997 | 20 | #5,222 | 11.5 |
| 1996 | 27 | #4,049 | 15.4 |
| 1995 | 19 | #5,209 | 10.8 |
| 1994 | 8 | #10,548 | 4.5 |
| 1993 | 9 | #9,538 | 5.0 |
| 1992 | 12 | #7,499 | 6.5 |
| 1991 | 16 | #5,940 | 8.5 |
| 1990 | 12 | #7,291 | 6.3 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,739 | 4.9 |
| 1988 | 14 | #5,888 | 7.9 |
| 1986 | 14 | #5,452 | 8.2 |
| 1982 | 5 | #12,298 | 3.0 |
| 1981 | 5 | #12,173 | 3.0 |
| 1980 | 6 | #10,378 | 3.6 |
| 1979 | 6 | #10,192 | 3.7 |
| 1978 | 5 | #11,446 | 3.3 |
| 1972 | 5 | #9,652 | 3.3 |
| 1965 | 7 | #5,810 | 4.0 |
| 1961 | 6 | #6,559 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Yelena a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Yelena has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Yelena: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Yelena, and how old are they?
1,610 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,626 Americans ever recorded as Yelena. The median Yelena alive today is 14 years old; half are between 5 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 11,377 people named Yelena (11,364 women and girls, 13 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,130 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10.1 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 | 5 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 27 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 146 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 646 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 783 |
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 Yelena born?
The states with the most babies named Yelena are Texas, California and Arizona, with 92% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Arizona is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 28 | #1,034 | 1.0× |
| California | 20 | #1,275 | 1.2× |
| Arizona | 6 | #1,035 | 0.4× |
| New York | 5 | #2,414 | 0.2× |
Where Yelena is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Yelena is most over-represented in California: since 1961 it was given 1.2 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
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 Yelena 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 111,930 babies since 1880, Yelena is the third most given (1.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 112 of their 5,015 babies (2.2%), the second 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.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Yelena
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 Yelena and names like it
- Compare Yelena and ElenaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sYelena peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Yelena since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Yelena.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Yelena alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with YMost given first.