Elaena
A feminine name derived from Greek meaning "bright, shining light".
Name Census estimates that about 80 living Americans carry the first name Elaena. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Elaena today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elaena births was 2009 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elaena. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Elaena. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
80
~ 1 in 4,284,429 Americans
Peak year
2009
10 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,901
Tracked since 2003
Popularity
Elaena: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elaena from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 31 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Elaena remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elaena by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Elaena during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Elaena
The name Elaena has its origins in Ancient Greek, derived from the Greek word "elaia" meaning "olive tree" or "olive." It first emerged in the Mediterranean region, particularly in Greece, during the Classical Antiquity period.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Elaena can be found in Greek mythology. Elaena was a beautiful Thessalian princess who was abducted by the god Ares. This myth dates back to the 5th century BC and is mentioned in Pausanias's "Description of Greece."
In the 3rd century BC, Elaena was also the name of a city located in Epirus, an ancient region in northwestern Greece. The city was founded by the Macedonian king Pyrrhus and named after his wife, Elaena.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Elaena. One of the most famous was Elaena Agathe (born around 370 AD), a Byzantine philosopher and mathematician who lived during the reign of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I. She is renowned for her contributions to the field of mathematics and her commentaries on Aristotle's works.
Another historically significant figure with this name was Elaena of Brittany (1182-1241), a Duchess of Brittany who played a crucial role in the medieval politics of northwestern France. She was instrumental in securing the succession of her son, John I, to the Duchy of Brittany.
In the 16th century, Elaena Lucrezia Cornaro (1522-1561) was a Venetian noblewoman and the last Queen of Cyprus. She was forced to cede the Kingdom of Cyprus to the Republic of Venice in 1489, marking the end of the Lusignan dynasty's rule over the island.
During the Renaissance period, Elaena Garzoni (1600-1668) was an Italian painter and printmaker known for her still-life paintings and engravings. Her works are considered significant contributions to the development of the still-life genre in Italian art.
In the realm of literature, Elaena is a character in the novel "The Last Unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle, published in 1968. She is depicted as a powerful sorceress who has the ability to transform into various animals.
People
Elaena + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elaena as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Elaena: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elaena?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 80 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elaena going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 4,284,429 US residents.
Is Elaena a common name?
We classify Elaena as "Very Rare". It ranks above 61.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 81 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elaena most popular?
The single biggest year for Elaena was 2009, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elaena is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Elaena a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elaena in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.