Name profile-Helena!

And our first lucky name is….(drumroll please), Helena!

What’s there to like?

Plenty. For one, this gorgeous girl name isn’t a fleeting trend. Helena is a name that has a winding history, but chances are, you haven’t met many, and it’s difficult for me to say why.

Helena really has it all…killer meaning, history, references. Helena has been proudly worn by British royalty, saints, Shakespeare characters, and award winning actresses since she was first commonly used as a given name in 30 AD, when its most famous bearer was Queen Helena of Mesopotamia. Helenas started popping up all over the map, with Constantine’s mother, Saint Helena, being one of the most notable. Helena was even kidnapped by a prince called Paris in the Greek story of the Trojan war. Progressing into the most significant Helenas of the 1500s, we find that Helena was popularized by Shakespeare's many characters bearing the moniker, including the Helenas in a Midsummer's Night Dream and All’s Well that Ends Well.

Not only does Helena have an inspiring history, she also perfectly encompasses classic, yet not boring or overused. Although her history of use is lengthy, she never ricocheted up the popularity charts like many have. She has mostly loomed around the mid 500s range in the top thousand for the past two decades, and she hasn’t made any great strides up or down. Because she remains at such a standstill, she perfectly embodies classic but unique, and even hits that perfect sweet spot of not-so-rare-that-no-one-knows-it but unique-enough-that-no-one-has-it name that so many people are after.

Not only that, Helena is a bunch of names within other names. This makes it very easy to honor Great Aunt Helen, your sister, Elena, or your cousin Lena while still giving your child her own name to own and define how she likes it.

Meaning matters a lot to many expectant parents, and since Helena is such a charmer of a name, she has a solid meaning as well. Helena means “bright”, which is definitely a positive adjective that a lot of parents would treasure to bestow upon their child. And as though Helena wasn’t already a powerhouse of a name, she can be elegant Helena, OR Laney, Nell, Ellie, Helen, and Lena. Despite not having a lot of letters, nicknames abound in Helena, although just plain Helena can work, too. You can adjust the nicknames according to pronunciation if you want the nickname to be slightly more obvious.

So if it’s so perfect, then what’s wrong?

Well… we do need to address the elephant in the room, and that is that there are so many ways to pronounce this name. Most commonly, I would predict that most people would default to hel-LAY-nuh, similar to the pronunciation of Elena, which is essentially part of the name, and the freshest sounding of the pronunciations. However, Helen is also a large part of the name, and some would pronounce it like helen-uh, since the name does derive from the name Helen. But if we’re still playing the name within a name game, I would like to point out that the name Lena is also hidden within, so the name could be pronounced huh-LEE-nuh, as well. I think that all of these usable pronunciations have weighed Helena down in her pursuit for the top of the charts.

Not only that, Helena has kind of missed her window in terms of when vintage names are revived. She peaked in the mid 1880s, and if you're a name-nerd like me, you know the 100 year rule-once it’s been 100 years since its peak, a name is ripe for revival. Take Stella, Ruby, and Pearl. All of them follow this century long waitlist until they get to shoot up the popularity charts once again, just like old times. Unfortunately, Helena’s time to shine came up around 1980, and she didn’t unleash her full potential, most likely because Helena is such a rare classic name that people are still steadily being named Helena, just not enough to cause a big Helena baby boom.

Predictions for Helena:

Despite the pronunciation issues, I think that Helena might have a shot at climbing the charts as parents search for more classics with a twist. Her nicknames are plentiful, she’s sweet, feminine, and yet strong, and has excellent meaning packaged in with all the other wonderful qualities of this classic moniker. I think everyone, including me, should give Helena more credit for the qualities she has that we’re all searching for in a name. Plus, there’s nothing wrong with embracing a bit of a dusty name!

~Delphina Moon

How do you feel about Helena? How would you pronounce this name? Do you think Helena is gearing up for a revival? Let me know below!