Heleena
A feminine variant of the name Helen, of Greek origin meaning "shining light".
Name Census estimates that about 82 living Americans carry the first name Heleena. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Heleena today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Heleena births was 2005 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Heleena. 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 Heleena with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Heleena. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
82
~ 1 in 4,179,931 Americans
Peak year
2005
7 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,126
Tracked since 1989
Census
Heleena in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 162 people with the first name Heleena, which placed it at #43,512 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
#43,512
National first-name rank
People counted
162
162 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Heleena
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heleena is White at 59.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.6%) and Two or More Races (9.9%). 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 Heleena 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 Heleena at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.3% · 96
- Black or African American13.6% · 22
- Two or more races9.9% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino8.6% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.8% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 3
Popularity
Heleena: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Heleena from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 31 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Heleena 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 Heleena 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 Heleena
The name Heleena has its roots in the ancient Greek language and culture, with origins dating back to the classical era. It is derived from the Greek word "helene," which means "bright" or "shining one," a reference to the radiant beauty often associated with Greek mythology and literature.
In Greek mythology, Heleena was the name of a celebrated figure, the daughter of Zeus and Leda. Her abduction by Paris, a Trojan prince, was said to be the catalyst for the legendary Trojan War, as recounted in Homer's epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. This mythological connection imbued the name with a sense of timeless allure and historical significance.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Heleena can be traced back to ancient Greece, where it was bestowed upon women of high social standing and nobility. One notable bearer of the name was Heleena of Adiabene, a Jewish queen consort who lived in the 1st century AD and was renowned for her charitable works and patronage of religious institutions.
Throughout history, the name Heleena has been borne by several prominent figures, including Heleena Lucretia Cornaro Piscopia, an Italian philosopher and theologian who, in 1678, became the first woman to receive a doctoral degree from a university. Another notable Heleena was Heleena Modjeska, a Polish actress and writer who achieved great acclaim on the theatrical stages of Europe and America in the late 19th century.
In the realm of literature, Heleena has been immortalized through the works of renowned authors. One such example is Heleena Richter, the protagonist of the novel "The Glass Bead Game" by Hermann Hesse, the German-Swiss writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. Additionally, Heleena Blavatsky, the co-founder of the Theosophical Society and a prominent figure in the Western esoteric tradition, left an indelible mark on the spiritual and philosophical landscape of the 19th century.
The name Heleena has also graced the lives of influential women in various fields, such as Heleena Rubinstein, the Polish-American businesswoman who founded the cosmetics company bearing her name, and Heleena Bonham Carter, the acclaimed British actress known for her versatile performances in films like "The King's Speech" and the "Harry Potter" series.
People
Heleena + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Heleena 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
Heleena: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Heleena?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 82 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Heleena 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 4,179,931 US residents.
Is Heleena a common name?
We classify Heleena as "Very Rare". It ranks above 61.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 83 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Heleena most popular?
The single biggest year for Heleena was 2005, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Heleena is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Heleena in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 162 people with the name Heleena, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #43,512 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 Heleena 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 Heleena?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Heleena leans strongly female. 159 people counted with this name were female (98.1%), compared with 3 male bearers (1.9%). 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 Heleena?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heleena is White at 59.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.6%) and Two or More Races (9.9%). 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 Heleena most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Heleena in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.3% (96 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 Heleena in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Heleena a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Heleena 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 Heleena still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Heleena 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 Heleena 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 Heleena?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.