← All names

Elaina

Girl name · 52 babies recorded · 1974–2025

Elaina: 52 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to girls, peaking at 5 births in 1980.

Elaina is predominantly a modern English variant of Helena, ultimately derived from the Greek Helene, whose meaning is often linked to torch or light. The most famous bearer of the ancient original form was Helen of Troy, whose face, in the classical telling, "launched a thousand ships." A more direct namesake is the American author Elaina Richardson, former president of the writers' colony Yaddo. While the name shares no direct Scottish placename root, the same Hellenic source gave us St. Helena, the island where Napoleon was exiled. Elaina particularly rose in popularity across Scotland during the 1990s, offering a softer, more contemporary twist on the perennial Helen and Elena, and often mistaken for the Gaelic *Eilidh*, though they are etymologically distinct.