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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Elen with official rankings and popularity over time.
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
Census
Elen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,320 people with the first name Elen, which placed it at #10,194 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#10,194
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,320 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Elen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elen is White at 60.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Elen described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Elen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.9% · 804
- Hispanic or Latino18.6% · 246
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.8% · 143
- Black or African American7.7% · 101
- Two or more races1.4% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 7
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.
How common was Elen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,320 people with the name Elen, or 0.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,194 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Elen in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Elen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Elen leans strongly female. 1,253 people counted with this name were female (94.6%), compared with 71 male bearers (5.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Elen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Elen is White at 60.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Elen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Elen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.9% (804 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Elen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Elen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Elen in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Elen can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people have the name Elen?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.