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Ileana

#3,180 in 2025Girls' name

To shine, warm, smoulder, burn, through Helena

Ileana has been given to 5,617 babies in the U.S. since 1918. In 2025 it ranked #3,180 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1991, with 141 recorded.

Babies named Ileana, 2025

1 in 66,300

Ileana over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ileana: meaning, origin, and history

To shine, warm, smoulder, burn, through Helena

Ancient Greek

What Ileana means

Ileana belongs to the name family reached through Ileana → Helena → Ἑλένη. Its meaning is “to shine, warm, smoulder, burn”.

Origin, language, and formation

Ileana is used in Romanian. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Ileana comes through Latin Helena and Ancient Greek Ἑλένη.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Helen, Elena, Helena and Ἑλένη.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,617 girls were recorded with the name Ileana between 1918 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 141 in 1991; its best national rank was #1,156 in 1926.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,180 in 2020 to #3,180 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,755 in 2015 to #3,180 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Ileana?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 66,300
50 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 32,100
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#3,180
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
45,959 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Ileana sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 45,959 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ileana. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ileanas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ileana was born before 1995 — so the typical Ileana is around 30 today.

Median birth year
1995
About 30 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
21.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
38.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
5,437
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 21.9% of all recorded uses (1,232).

Is Ileana rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−783
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,000
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−425
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.78×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
35.5%
Peak was 1991 (141)
Years since peak
34
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
15.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,156
1926

Spellings of Ileana

Ileana is not the most common spelling — Lena is, with 14.7% against Ileana's 0.56%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Ileana is used

Across 2016–2025, Ileana was most concentrated in Texas — about 1 in 10,000 girls, against 1 in 16,070 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in 100,000).

110 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Texas1 in 10,000
  2. 2California1 in 12,500
  3. 3Florida1 in 16,667
  4. 4Arizona1 in 25,000
  5. 5New Jersey1 in 25,000
  6. 6New York1 in 50,000
  7. 7Illinois1 in 100,000
  8. 8Virginia1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Ileana around the world

Where Ileana ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2004–2024
    #4,844
    in 2024
  • France
    1958–2025
    #1,427
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1997–2023
    #3,391
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1983–2006
    #782
    in 2006

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Ileana

People whose public names include Ileana, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Ileana in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Ileana. Linked forms have their own page here.

IlonaEllina

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Ileana by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#3,180
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,000
Best rank ever
#1,156
1926
Peak year
1991
141 that year
First recorded
1918
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
5,617
Count in 2025
50

Names similar to Ileana

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

SavanaBryanaJohanaMilanaAryanaDelanaQuianaOrianaKeyanaAvianaAlianaSolanaAitanaAiyanaAllanaIleneSahanaBreanaRoxanaIlanaRosanaSantanaIyanaIliana

Names with a curve like Ileana

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Ileana, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

KayleneAnnalisaStormyLanaeLeeannaMarcelaAnamariaMagalyJoriLupitaShoshanaPilar

Sibling names for Ileana

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Ileana

Top names of 1991, Ileana's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1926Girls' names starting with IHelen Variations & NicknamesRomanian Girl NamesRomanian NamesUncommon Romanian Girl Names