The story in the numbers

1,023,527 girls have been named Helen in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1918, with 36,148 births — 3.1% of all girls recorded that year.

The name has all but left use: 726 births in 2024, against 36,148 at the peak.

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1924, and the 1920s alone account for 28%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 79 of them in the top 100 and 45 in the top 10.

It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 3,105 boys have also been given it, 0.30% of the total.

Rank among girls, year by year

By decade

Decade

girls named Helen

11,496

37,802

69,428

248,154

290,403

140,426

90,742

57,578

29,098

11,475

8,414

8,405

8,847

7,583

3,676

In 1918, its biggest year

Helen was the 2nd most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1918 were Mary, Helen, Dorothy, Margaret and Ruth. See all of 1918.

Names that rose and fell with Helen

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.