Helane
Feminine French name referring to the sun or light.
Name Census estimates that about 110 living Americans carry the first name Helane. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Helane today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Helane births was 1951 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Helane. 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
- • The typical person named Helane is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Helanes were born before 1966.
People living today
110
~ 1 in 3,115,949 Americans
Peak year
1951
18 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
1966 SSA rank
#6,062
Tracked since 1924
Census
Helane in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 207 people with the first name Helane, which placed it at #37,585 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
#37,585
National first-name rank
People counted
207
207 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Helane
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Helane is White at 85.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.1%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Helane 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 Helane at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.0% · 176
- Black or African American10.1% · 21
- Two or more races3.4% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 2
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 1
Popularity
Helane: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Helane from the 1920s through to the 1960s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 72 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1950s peak, Helane remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Helane 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 Helane during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Helanes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Helane
The given name Helane is derived from the Greek word "helios", meaning "sun". This name has its roots in ancient Greek mythology and culture, dating back to the classical period around the 5th century BC.
In Greek mythology, Helios was the personification of the sun and was one of the most important deities. He was often depicted as a handsome young man crowned with the shining rays of the sun, driving a golden chariot across the sky. The name Helane was likely inspired by this powerful sun god and was used to honor his radiance and life-giving warmth.
The earliest recorded examples of the name Helane can be found in ancient Greek texts and inscriptions. One notable individual who bore this name was Helane of Rhodes, a Greek philosopher who lived in the 3rd century BC and was a student of the renowned thinker Epicurus.
Throughout history, the name Helane has been carried by several remarkable individuals. One of the most famous was Helane of Cilicia, a 4th-century Christian martyr who was tortured and executed for her faith during the Roman persecution of Christians under the rule of Emperor Diocletian.
In the Middle Ages, the name Helane was associated with Helane de Bourgogne, a 12th-century Countess of Burgundy who played a significant role in the governance of the region during the Crusades.
Another notable bearer of the name was Helane de Champlitte, a 13th-century French noblewoman who was famous for her patronage of the arts and her support for the construction of several churches and monasteries in the region of Champagne.
During the Renaissance period, the name Helane was borne by Helane de Tournon, a 16th-century French courtier and lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine de' Medici. She was known for her intelligence and her influential role in the French court.
These are just a few examples of the many remarkable individuals who have carried the name Helane throughout history, each contributing to the rich tapestry of this ancient and meaningful name.
People
Helane + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Helane as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Helane: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Helane?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 110 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Helane 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 3,115,949 US residents.
Is Helane a common name?
We classify Helane as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 174 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Helane most popular?
The single biggest year for Helane was 1951, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Helane is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Helane in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 207 people with the name Helane, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,585 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 Helane 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 Helane?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Helane appears almost entirely female. Of the 208 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Helane?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Helane is White at 85.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.1%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Helane most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Helane in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.0% (176 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 Helane in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Helane a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Helane 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 Helane still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Helane 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 Helane 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 common is the name Helane?
See how many Americans are named Helane on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.