Yelena
The Russian way of saying Helena, from a Hebrew root that carries the sense of shining light. Only about 210 women in Poland carry it, so most Poles will never meet one.
Yelena Pronunciation
Yelena is pronounced ih-e-LE-nah (/ɨɛˈlɛna/).
What Yelena means
Where Yelena comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Yelena is how Russian speakers say Helena. The name goes back to a Hebrew root, and the meaning that has stayed with it is shining light, or a torch lifted against the dark. Polish registers keep the fuller Helena, then loosen it into Hela, Helenka, and Lena among people who know the bearer well.
Of those, Lena has drifted furthest. It now stands on its own on many a class register, a real name rather than a nickname. The Russian coloring is clear too: Yelena Isinbayeva, the pole vaulter who cleared height after height, took the name onto scoreboards around the world.
A girl named Helena will find her imieniny in the Polish calendar, a name-day to answer to. Whatever language shapes the vowels, the old sense holds: shining light, promienna, a torch that gives off its own glow.
How many people are named Yelena
1 in 107352 women in Poland is named Yelena. 210 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2164 among female names.
Yelena as a middle name
Yelena is a first name for 210 women in Poland and a middle name for another 2, a 99/1 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 6980th, between Yelda (2) and Yelitza (2).
-
#6978 Yarley2
-
#6979 Yelda2
-
#6980 Yelena2
-
#6981 Yelitza2
-
#6982 Yeliz2