Hellen
Feminine name of Greek origin meaning "bright" or "shining one".
Name Census estimates that about 3,481 living Americans carry the first name Hellen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hellen today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hellen births was 1924 (195 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hellen. 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 Hellen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.5K
~ 1 in 98,464 Americans
Peak year
1924
195 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,633
Tracked since 1883
Census
Hellen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,019 people with the first name Hellen, which placed it at #3,898 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
#3,898
National first-name rank
People counted
5.0K
5,019 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
36.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hellen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hellen is White at 36.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.5%) and Black (20.4%). 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 Hellen 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 Hellen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White36.3% · 1,823
- Hispanic or Latino31.5% · 1,582
- Black or African American20.4% · 1,023
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.5% · 478
- Two or more races1.5% · 77
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 36
Popularity
Hellen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hellen 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 1,668 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Hellen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hellen 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 Hellen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hellens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. Texas, California, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Hellen, while Kansas, Connecticut, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 164 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hellen
The name Hellen has its origins in the Greek language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Greek word "Helene," which means "bright" or "shining one." The name was popular in ancient Greece and was associated with beauty and radiance.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Hellen can be found in Greek mythology. Helen of Troy, also known as Helen of Sparta, was a legendary figure whose extraordinary beauty was said to have caused the Trojan War. According to the Iliad, an epic poem attributed to Homer, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and her abduction by Paris of Troy sparked a decade-long conflict between the Greeks and Trojans.
In the 4th century BCE, Hellen was the name of a philosopher and mathematician from Cyzicus, a city in ancient Greece. She is credited with being one of the first female mathematicians and is known for her work on the Delian problem, which involved doubling the volume of a cube using only a straight edge and compass.
During the Renaissance period, Hellen was the name of a prominent Italian painter and poet. Hellen Sirani (1638-1665) was a celebrated artist from Bologna, known for her religious paintings and portraits. She was one of the first women to be admitted to the Accademia di San Luca, a prestigious art academy in Rome.
In the 19th century, Hellen Keller (1880-1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer who was the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor's degree. Despite her disabilities, she became a renowned advocate for people with disabilities and a champion of social justice.
Another notable figure with the name Hellen was Hellen Wills Moody (1905-1998), an American tennis player who won numerous Grand Slam titles in the 1920s and 1930s. She was a dominant force in women's tennis and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1959.
These are just a few examples of the rich history and notable individuals associated with the name Hellen. While the name has its roots in ancient Greece, it has transcended time and cultures, leaving an indelible mark on various fields throughout history.
People
Hellen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hellen 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
Hellen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hellen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,481 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hellen 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 98,464 US residents.
Is Hellen a common name?
We classify Hellen as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,240 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hellen most popular?
The single biggest year for Hellen was 1924, when 195 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hellen is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hellen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,019 people with the name Hellen, or 1.66 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,898 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 Hellen 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 Hellen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hellen appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,027 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Hellen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hellen is White at 36.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.5%) and Black (20.4%). 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 Hellen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hellen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.3% (1,823 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 Hellen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hellen a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hellen 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 Hellen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hellen 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 Hellen 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 Americans are named Hellen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.