Ellen
Meaning
torch, bright one (variant of Helen); immortalized by Ellen Ripley in Alien (1979)
Famously borne by Ellen MacArthur, who set the solo round the world sailing record in 2005.
The story
For centuries Ellen was simply the way English speakers said Helen, the ancient Greek name read as torch or bright one, and in medieval England it was the everyday form. Its modern claim to immortality is Ellen Ripley, the warrant officer Sigourney Weaver played in Alien in 1979: resourceful, unglamorous and impossible to kill, she became the template for nearly every action heroine who followed. The name's American record is one of the calmest lines a chart can draw: steady and solid from the 1890s clear through the 1960s, easing a single step in the 1970s and holding that level ever since, decade after decade. No spike, no crash, just seven generations of Ellens quietly getting things done, which feels, in the end, very much in Ripley's spirit.
Ellen around the world
One shared root links 8 names across 5 languages.
Shared root: Greek Helene, traditionally "torch, light", though even the ancients were guessing at its true root
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Ellen peaked in the 1890s and the 1960s in nearly equal measure.
Popularity in Brazil
61,520 people · the #498 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 3,300 · median age 20
Among people named Ellen living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2000s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 2,857 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Ellen
People given the name Ellen in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1989. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Ellen deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Ellen truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Ellen fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Names of explorers and adventurers · Iconic movie character names
Does Ellen fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Ellen to your family’s tree →