Meaning of the nameElena
- Female
- Greek origin
- E-le-na
Elena is a spelling of the name Helena, which means “probably from Greek helene, 'torch'”.
Meaning
“probably from Greek helene, 'torch'”
Meaning of the name Helena, of which Elena is a spelling.
Source: Behind the Name: Helen
- People (2022)
- 46,773
- Rank in Brazil
- #592
- Median age
- 30 years
- 2010 Census
- 40,101
- people
Elena in the 2022 Census
People with the first name Elena, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in 2020 to 2022 (11,483 people).
46,512 women 261 men
Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.
Where the name Elena is most common
States with the highest share of people named Elena in the population, in the 2022 Census.
- Rondônia 0.041%
- Rio Grande do Sul 0.036%
- Paraná 0.036%
- Mato Grosso 0.035%
- Mato Grosso do Sul 0.035%
All states
| State | People | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| São Paulo | 9,981 | 0.023% |
| Minas Gerais | 4,097 | 0.020% |
| Paraná | 4,097 | 0.036% |
| Rio Grande do Sul | 3,945 | 0.036% |
| Bahia | 3,163 | 0.022% |
| Rio de Janeiro | 2,980 | 0.019% |
| Santa Catarina | 2,407 | 0.032% |
| Goiás | 1,771 | 0.025% |
| Pernambuco | 1,760 | 0.019% |
| Pará | 1,743 | 0.022% |
| Mato Grosso | 1,293 | 0.035% |
| Espírito Santo | 1,257 | 0.033% |
| Ceará | 966 | 0.011% |
| Maranhão | 964 | 0.014% |
| Mato Grosso do Sul | 953 | 0.035% |
| Amazonas | 876 | 0.022% |
| Rondônia | 649 | 0.041% |
| Alagoas | 644 | 0.021% |
| Distrito Federal | 637 | 0.023% |
| Paraíba | 488 | 0.012% |
| Rio Grande do Norte | 474 | 0.014% |
| Piauí | 414 | 0.013% |
| Tocantins | 362 | 0.024% |
| Sergipe | 293 | 0.013% |
| Roraima | 199 | 0.031% |
| Acre | 194 | 0.023% |
| Amapá | 166 | 0.023% |
States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.
The spelling Elena
It is written without the initial H; Wiktionary relates Elena and Helena as alternative forms of the same name.
About the name Helena
Helena is a learned borrowing from Latin Helena, which comes from Ancient Greek Helene, according to Wiktionary. For Behind the Name, the Greek name probably comes from helene, 'torch', or perhaps is related to selene, 'moon'. In Greek mythology, Helen is the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and her abduction by Paris gives rise to the Trojan War. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 366,186 people named Helena, with a median age of 8. Common among women born in the 1950s and 1960s, the name returned strongly in the 2010s and 2020s and, proportionally, is most common in Santa Catarina; the Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil (Dictionary of Names in Use in Brazil) lists Elena among the spelling variants.
Other spellings of Helena
| Spelling | People (2022) |
|---|---|
| Helena | 366,186 |
| Elena | 46,773 |
Sources
- Wiktionary: Helena · en.wiktionary.org · origin
- Behind the Name: Helen · behindthename.com · meaning
- Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Helena · dicionariodenomesdobrasil.com.br · spelling
- Wiktionary: Elena · en.wiktionary.org · spelling
Questions about the name Elena
What does the name Elena mean?
Elena means “probably from Greek helene, 'torch'”, according to Behind the Name. This is the meaning of the name Helena, of which Elena is a spelling.
How many people are named Elena in Brazil?
IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 46,773 people with the first name Elena, which ranks it number 592 among the country's names. The largest group was born in 2020 to 2022.
Is Elena a boy's or a girl's name?
Elena is a female name: in the 2022 Census, 46,512 women and 261 men had this name.
What is the origin of the name Elena?
Elena is a name of Greek origin. The sources are listed at the end of the page.
In which Brazilian state is Elena most common?
Proportionally, in Rondônia: 0.041% of the state's population is named Elena (649 people), according to the 2022 Census.
What are the other spellings of Elena?
Helena. IBGE counts each spelling separately.
Names that also mean light
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