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Girl · Greek
Jelena
Say it: YEH-leh-nah
Meaning
Serbian and Croatian form of Helen, from Greek Helene, of uncertain origin.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Borne by medieval Serbian and Croatian queens and one of the most common names in Serbia and Croatia since the 1970s.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 1,470 babies given this name since 1959
- At its height in 2017, about 1 in 25,300 girls
- 38 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Јелена, Елена
| Russian | Yelena |
|---|---|
| Ukrainian | Olena |
| Czech | Helena |
| Bulgarian | Elena |
Famous bearers
- Helen of Anjou (Jelena Anžujska), Queen of Serbia
- Jelena Dokić, tennis player
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Royal and noble genealogies
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.