Ilene

About Ilene

Ilene is an English variant of Eileen, a name with Irish and Norman French connections and an uncertain deeper meaning. Its most familiar screen association is Ilene Woods, the voice of Disney’s Cinderella. The compact spelling keeps the sound of Eileen while giving it a distinctive beginning.

Origins and related names

Eileen is an Anglicized form of Irish Eibhlín. That name developed from Aveline, a Norman French form of the Germanic Avelina, itself a diminutive of Avila. The older element awi has no securely established meaning.

Eileen has also sometimes been associated with Helen. It became popular in the English-speaking world outside Ireland near the end of the nineteenth century, before Ilene’s strongest period in American birth records.

Ilene probably took some spelling influence from Irene, while remaining a variant in the Eileen name family.

Aileen and Ileen are close alternatives. Eibhlín and Aveline show earlier stages in the name family, with visibly different forms that help explain how far the name has travelled.

Pronunciation

English uses both eye-LEEN and EYE-leen. The first stresses the final syllable; the second places the stress at the beginning. Both have two syllables and retain the long ee sound.

Ilene therefore shares Eileen’s familiar sound pattern despite its shorter written form. Its first letter and single internal vowel distinguish it on the page from Aileen and Eileen.

Ilene Woods and Cinderella

Ilene Woods voiced Cinderella in Disney’s 1950 animated film. Her involvement began in 1948 when she recorded demonstration songs as a favour for songwriter friends Mack David and Jerry Livingston. Walt Disney heard the recordings and selected her for the role.

Woods already had experience as a singer and radio performer. By 1944 she had her own weekly programme on the ABC network in New York, a background that preceded her best-known screen work.

The Cinderella recordings required more than simply speaking dialogue. Her vocal performance included singing, and the film used her voice in layered harmonies during the sequence in which Cinderella scrubs the floor.

Disney named Woods a Disney Legend in 2003. She also developed a later career as a portrait artist, beginning in 1985, with a particular interest in children’s portraits.

Her work gives Ilene a connection with both radio-era performance and a lasting animated character. The association comes through the actor’s own name; the character she voiced is Cinderella.

American popularity

Ilene’s highest annual birth count for girls in the United States was 453 in 1950, when it ranked #379. It was recorded for 65 girls in 2000 and 41 in 2010.

In 2025, nineteen girls received the exact spelling. Its strongest American period was therefore around the middle of the twentieth century.

How popular is Ilene?

In 2025, Ilene ranked #6,201 among girls in the United States, with 19 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1891; its largest annual count was 453 in 1950. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.