Lena
From the Greek for "torch," a shining light. It crested in the 2010s and has been easing off since, yet stays common enough that you almost certainly know a Lena.
Lena Pronunciation
Lena is pronounced LE-nah (/ˈlɛna/).
What Lena means
Where Lena comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Lena grew up as the short end of Helena, a name Greek in origin and linked to the word for torch, a shining light. For a long time it lived only as a nickname. Then it slipped free and became a full name in its own right, printed on birth records without any Helena behind it.
The older forms still stand beside it. Helena stays the formal variant and Yelena the Russian one. Hela and Helenka are the diminutives a grandmother might use. Lena sits in the middle, short enough for a school class register, complete enough for an official form at the urząd.
The meaning stayed close to light. Greek Helene has been read as torch and brightness since antiquity, and Lena kept that sense without the extra length. The meaning held: torch, shining light.
When Lena celebrates name day
Lena appears 7 times in the Polish name day calendar, 3 of them as a main name, the first on 21 February.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Lena
1 in 170 women in Poland is named Lena. 132,357 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #108 among female names.
Lena's popularity over time
1,845 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #44 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2000.
Where Lena is most popular
Lena is most popular in Świętokrzyskie, 26% above the national average (900 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+20%) and Łódź (+14%). It is least common in Masovian and Lower Silesian, 19% and 12% below average respectively.
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Świętokrzyskie900 girls born+26%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian1,693 girls born+20%
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Łódź1,869 girls born+14%
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Subcarpathian1,757 girls born+13%
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Lublin1,397 girls born+6%
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Podlaskie895 girls born+6%
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Warmian-Masurian980 girls born+6%
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Opole621 girls born+5%
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Silesian3,074 girls born+5%
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Lubusz655 girls born+2%
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Greater Poland2,829 girls born+2%
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West Pomeranian1,108 girls born+2%
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Lesser Poland2,823 girls born−3%
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Pomeranian1,783 girls born−6%
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Lower Silesian1,772 girls born−12%
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Masovian3,682 girls born−19%
Lena as a middle name
Lena is a first name for 132,357 women in Poland and a middle name for another 12,610, a 91/9 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 99th, between Ilona (12,931) and Sandra (12,516).
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#97 Leokadia13,473
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#98 Ilona12,931
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#99 Lena12,610
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#100 Sandra12,516
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#101 Gertruda12,475