Elen
Elen is a Welsh feminine name meaning "sun ray" or "bright".
Name Census estimates that about 292 living Americans carry the first name Elen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Elen today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Elen births was 2022 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Elen. 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.
People living today
292
~ 1 in 1,173,816 Americans
Peak year
2022
17 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,069
Tracked since 1911
Popularity
Elen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Elen from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 83 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Elen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Elen 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 Elen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Elens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Elen
The name Elen has its origins in ancient Welsh and Cornish cultures, deriving from the Brittonic words "elen" and "eline," meaning "fawn" or "deer." This association with a graceful and gentle creature likely contributed to the name's popularity in these Celtic regions during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Elen can be found in the Welsh mythological cycle known as the "Mabinogion," a collection of prose stories from the 12th and 13th centuries. In these tales, Elen appears as a character who symbolizes beauty, purity, and virtue, further reinforcing the name's positive connotations.
Throughout history, the name Elen has been borne by several notable figures. In the 5th century, Elen Luyddog, a Welsh princess and daughter of a British king, was renowned for her piety and is remembered for her role in the construction of roads and fortresses across Britain. Another prominent figure with this name was Elen ferch Gwalchmai, a 13th-century Welsh noblewoman and the wife of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd.
In the literary realm, the name Elen has been immortalized in the works of renowned poets and writers. One notable example is Elen Môn, a 16th-century Welsh poet and the first known female poet to have her works published in Wales. Her poetic contributions have been celebrated for their depth and artistry.
Moving beyond the Celtic regions, the name Elen has also found its way into other cultures and languages. In ancient Greece, the name Elen (or Helen) was associated with the mythological figure Helen of Troy, whose legendary beauty was said to have launched a thousand ships. This connection further solidified the name's association with grace and allure.
Elen has been the name of several queens and princesses throughout history, including Elen of Anjou (1194-1241), who was the wife of King William II of Scotland, and Elen de Montfort (c. 1252-1282), a Welsh princess and the daughter of Llywelyn the Great. These influential women bore the name with dignity and left their mark on the annals of history.
While the name Elen has maintained a strong presence in Wales and other Celtic regions, it has also gained popularity in various parts of the world, transcending cultural and linguistic boundaries. Its rich history and associations with grace, beauty, and virtue have contributed to its enduring appeal across generations.
People
Elen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Elen 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
Elen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Elen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 292 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Elen 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 1,173,816 US residents.
Is Elen a common name?
We classify Elen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 401 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Elen most popular?
The single biggest year for Elen was 2022, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Elen is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Elen a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Elen 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.