Olena
Around 82,000 women in Poland carry it, but almost no newborns get it now: the name reads as heritage, carried over rather than freshly chosen. Ukrainian at root, it means "torch" or bright light.
Olena Pronunciation
Olena is pronounced o-LE-nah (/ɔˈlɛna/).
What Olena means
Where Olena comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Olena is the Ukrainian form of Helen, reshaped by Slavic mouths until it settled into its own sound. The name it grew from holds the sense of torch, of bright light, and that meaning travelled with it into Ukrainian without much fuss.
For a long time the name belonged mostly to Ukraine. Olena Pchilka, born in 1849, was a writer and publisher, and mother of the poet Lesya Ukrainka. More recently Olena Zelenska, wife of the president, made the name known far past the country's borders.
In a Polish class register, Olena now sits among the Zuzannas and Julias, a name that arrived with Ukrainian families and stayed. It has no Polish diminutive of its own, no tidy shortened form waiting on an official urząd document. People use it whole.
The old meaning holds: torch, bright light.
How many people are named Olena
1 in 274 women in Poland is named Olena. 82,437 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #136 among female names.
Olena's popularity over time
5 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #951 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2003. Still the #136 name among living women, even as it slips to #951 among newborns.
Where parents choose Olena
Olena is most popular in Warmian-Masurian, 168% above the national average (4 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Greater Poland (+168%) and Lower Silesian (+144%). It is least common in Silesian and Lesser Poland, 58% and 37% below average respectively.
-
Warmian-Masurian
+168%1 in 17,948 babies
-
Greater Poland
+168%1 in 17,937 babies
-
Lower Silesian
+144%1 in 19,642 babies
-
Silesian
−58%1 in 113,792 babies
-
Lesser Poland
−37%1 in 75,639 babies
-
Pomeranian
−35%1 in 73,661 babies
-
Warmian-Masurian+168% 4 born1 in 17,948 babies+168%
-
Greater Poland+168% 12 born1 in 17,937 babies+168%
-
Lower Silesian+144% 8 born1 in 19,642 babies+144%
-
Kuyavian-Pomeranian+32% 3 born1 in 36,460 babies+32%
-
Łódź+14% 3 born1 in 42,239 babies+14%
-
Masovian−19% 6 born1 in 59,044 babies−19%
-
Subcarpathian−20% 2 born1 in 60,283 babies−20%
-
Pomeranian−35% 2 born1 in 73,661 babies−35%
-
Lesser Poland−37% 3 born1 in 75,639 babies−37%
-
Silesian−58% 2 born1 in 113,792 babies−58%
Olena as a middle name
Olena is a first name for 82,437 women in Poland and a middle name for another 119, a 100/0 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 602nd, between Natasha (119) and Atena (118).
-
#600 Virginia120
-
#601 Natasha119
-
#602 Olena119
-
#603 Atena118
-
#604 Felicyta118