Serena
- Pronunciation
- [Se-re-na]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Serene
- Origin
- Spanish
About the Name Serena
Serena descends from the Latin serenus meaning "clear," "calm," or "serene" — referring originally to clear weather or untroubled circumstances. The name has been used in English-speaking countries since the medieval period and is anchored by Saint Serena, an early Christian martyr.
The name's overwhelming modern cultural anchor is American tennis star Serena Williams (born 1981, the iconic American tennis player who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, more than any other tennis player in the Open Era — and is widely considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time). The Serena Williams cultural anchor has been continuously the most-influential modern American Serena reference. Other notable bearers include the iconic Serena van der Woodsen of CW's Gossip Girl (2007–2012, played by Blake Lively, anchoring the name in 2000s American teen-TV memory).
Serena's American climb has been substantial: the name climbed from outside the US top 500 in 1980 to the US top 200 girls' rank by 2008 and the top 300 since. The name's appeal is its layered Latin-Catholic-classical pedigree combined with three flowing syllables — the in-built calm/serene etymological register, the strong Serena Williams sports cultural anchor, and the elegant Latinate sophistication. The name reads as both classical-Latin and contemporary American with the strong Serena Williams sports cultural anchor. Common nicknames Renie, Reni, Sera (back-end shortening), and the rare Sere each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Serena, Serina, and Sereena have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Serena (essentially identical across Italian/Spanish/Portuguese/English), Serene (alternate French), and the original Latin serenus.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Serena
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Serena by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 1,504 girls named Serena (girl rank #209 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #325 for girls (942 US births). That's 116 places below its 2000 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Serena Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Serena the strongest states are Rhode Island, Hawaii, District of Columbia.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhode Island | #207 | 16 |
| 2 | Hawaii | #223 | 17 |
| 3 | District of Columbia | #237 | 22 |
| 4 | New Mexico | #239 | 25 |
| 5 | New Jersey | #270 | 299 |
| 6 | New York | #274 | 602 |
| 7 | California | #283 | 1,159 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | #313 | 175 |
| 9 | Connecticut | #326 | 109 |
| 10 | Washington | #342 | 197 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louisiana | #770 | 39 |
| 2 | Tennessee | #696 | 87 |
| 3 | Alabama | #688 | 52 |
| 4 | Oklahoma | #673 | 40 |
| 5 | Arkansas | #607 | 17 |
| 6 | Missouri | #601 | 96 |
| 7 | Georgia | #599 | 185 |
| 8 | Kentucky | #594 | 73 |
| 9 | South Carolina | #590 | 60 |
| 10 | North Carolina | #587 | 162 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Serena in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Serena
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Serena.
- Serena Williams — Tennis Player (1981)
Looking for names like Serena?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Serena to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Serena against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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