Alena
- Pronunciation
- [A-le-na]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Fair: Good-Looking. Feminine Of Allen Or Variant Of Helen.
- Origin
- Celtic
About the Name Alena
Alena is a graceful name with layered roots. It is widely understood as a feminine form of Allen or a variant of Helen, the Greek name often connected to ideas of light and brightness, and it is frequently glossed as "fair" or "good-looking." The form has long circulated across Celtic, Slavic, and German-speaking regions, which has given it a soft, international quality that travels easily across borders and languages and feels at home in many cultures at once.
For American girls, Alena entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000 and has remained on the list ever since, accumulating 9,972 births over that period. It peaked in 2015 at rank #596 and has settled into a steadier groove since, recorded at #745 in 2022, #818 in 2023, and #749 in 2024. That pattern describes a name with a loyal, durable following rather than a passing trend, one that has held its place through shifting fashions.
The appeal of Alena lies in its balance: three flowing syllables, a vowel-rich melody, and a familiar yet uncommon feel that sets it slightly apart from the more ubiquitous Elena or Helena. Recorded variants include Aleena, Alene, and Alina, offering parents a range of spellings while preserving the same gentle, lyrical sound across each one. Soft and easy to pronounce, Alena suits parents who want a name that feels both elegant and effortlessly approachable.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Alena
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Alena by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2015 with 499 girls named Alena (girl rank #596 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #707 for girls (398 US births). That's 111 places below its 2015 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 Alena 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 Alena the strongest states are Hawaii, Connecticut, Nevada.
Strongest girls-name states
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | #782 | 108 |
| 2 | Tennessee | #778 | 60 |
| 3 | Minnesota | #751 | 52 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #739 | 70 |
| 5 | Illinois | #732 | 127 |
| 6 | New York | #722 | 162 |
| 7 | Ohio | #722 | 110 |
| 8 | Virginia | #712 | 94 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | #708 | 54 |
| 10 | Missouri | #706 | 70 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Alena in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Alena?
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 Alena to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Alena 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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