Helen
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "shining light".
Name Census estimates that about 179,926 living Americans carry the first name Helen. It sits at #424 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Helen today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Helen births was 1918 (36,228 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Helen. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Helen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Helen is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 3,105 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Helen is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Helens were born before 1970.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Helen have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
180K
~ 1 in 1,905 Americans
Peak year
1918
36,228 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2004 SSA rank
#424
Tracked since 1880
Census
Helen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 280,360 people with the first name Helen, which placed it at #190 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#190
National first-name rank
People counted
280K
280,360 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
92.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Helen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Helen is White at 72.4%. The next largest groups are Black (10.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Helen described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Helen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.4% · 203,059
- Black or African American10.9% · 30,506
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.2% · 20,077
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 19,961
- Two or more races1.8% · 5,012
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1,745
Gender
Gender distribution for Helen
Out of the 1,026,632 babies given the name Helen since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Helen as a male name
- Ranked #12,003 in 2004
- 5 male births in 2004
- Peak: 1927 (92 births)
Helen as a female name
- Ranked #424 in 2024
- 726 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (36,148 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Helen appears almost entirely female. Of the 280,357 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Helen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Helen from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 291,151 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Helen by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Helen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 31 | 11,496 | 11,527 |
| 1890s | 115 | 37,802 | 37,917 |
| 1900s | 247 | 69,428 | 69,675 |
| 1910s | 563 | 248,154 | 248,717 |
| 1920s | 748 | 290,403 | 291,151 |
| 1930s | 665 | 140,426 | 141,091 |
| 1940s | 334 | 90,742 | 91,076 |
| 1950s | 169 | 57,578 | 57,747 |
| 1960s | 105 | 29,098 | 29,203 |
| 1970s | 65 | 11,475 | 11,540 |
| 1980s | 36 | 8,414 | 8,450 |
| 1990s | 22 | 8,405 | 8,427 |
| 2000s | 5 | 8,847 | 8,852 |
| 2010s | 0 | 7,583 | 7,583 |
| 2020s | 0 | 3,676 | 3,676 |
Geography
Where Helens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Helen, while Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17,715 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Helen
The name Helen has its origins in the Greek language. It is derived from the Greek word "helene," which means "bright" or "shining one." The name's earliest known use dates back to Ancient Greece, around the 8th century BCE.
In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy was a figure of great significance. She was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and her abduction by Paris of Troy is said to have sparked the Trojan War. This event is depicted in the Iliad, one of the earliest known works of literature, written by Homer around the 8th century BCE.
The name Helen also appears in the New Testament of the Bible. In the Book of Acts, a woman named Helen is mentioned as a follower of the prophet Simon Magus. This reference dates back to the 1st century CE.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Helen was Helen of Constantinople, also known as Saint Helen or Saint Helena. She was the mother of Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman Emperor, and lived in the 3rd and 4th centuries CE.
Another notable figure was Helen of Anjou, who lived from 1236 to 1314. She was a Queen consort of Sicily and a member of the House of Anjou. Her name was also spelled as Helena or Helene.
In the 16th century, Helen of Sweden, also known as Helena Giedyminowicz, was a Polish-born queen of Sweden. She lived from 1508 to 1585 and played a significant role in the Protestant Reformation in Sweden.
Helen Keller, born in 1880 and died in 1968, was a renowned American author, political activist, and lecturer. Despite being deaf and blind from a young age, she became a prominent advocate for people with disabilities and a champion of social justice.
Helen Hayes, who lived from 1900 to 1993, was an American actress widely regarded as the "First Lady of American Theatre." She was one of the few performers to have won all four major American entertainment awards: an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, and a Grammy.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Helen
People
Helen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Helen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Helen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Helen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 179,926 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Helen going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,905 US residents.
Is Helen a common name?
We classify Helen as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,026,632 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Helen most popular?
The single biggest year for Helen was 1918, when 36,228 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Helen is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Helen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 280,360 people with the name Helen, or 92.83 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #190 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Helen in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Helen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Helen appears almost entirely female. Of the 280,357 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Helen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Helen is White at 72.4%. The next largest groups are Black (10.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Helen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Helen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.4% (203,059 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Helen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Helen a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Helen in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Helen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Helen in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Helen can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Helen?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.