Irena

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Ирина in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan, TR Türkiye and 6 more, Erin in US United States, AU Australia, GB United Kingdom and 3 more, Irina in ES Spain, GE Georgia, BG Bulgaria and Ірина in UA Ukraine, FR France.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Irena is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name68K records spelled Irena25 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Germany, Australia, United Kingdom

  Languages: English, German, Danish

  Also written Írena, Iréna, Irēna, I-Rena, Irèna

• Portuguese given name55K records spelled Irena18 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Spain, Argentina

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian

  Also written Ireña, Irēna, Irèna, Írena, Iréna

• Hungarian given name25K records spelled Irena4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Slovenia, Hungary, United States, Serbia

  Also written Iréna, Irèna, Irēna

• French given name12K records spelled Irena7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, Belgium, United States

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Iréna, Irèna, Irêna, Irēna, Írena

• a separate given name4.0K records spelled Irena5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Serbia

  Also written Irēna, Irèna, Iréna, Irėna

• Finnish given name2.0K records spelled Irena4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Estonia, United States, Sweden

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Irēna

58 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Irena is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Swedish, Irena är en polsk och tjeckisk form av → Irene. Namnformen användes en del även i Sverige på 1800-talet, kanske som en bildning till det grekiska namnet Irenes som fanns i den dåvarande almanackan 5 april.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In German, weibl. Vom., latinisierte Form von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• Latinate form of IRENE , used as a female given name in several languages, including Dutch, Polish, and Czech.

  as a word

• In Finnish, fairy bluebird (bird of the genus Irena, the only genus in the family Irenidae)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Latvian, Zilvālodžu dzimtas ģints

  as a word·Tēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 141 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Louise Mountbattenb. 1889SEnot in their usual nameQueen consort of Sweden (1950-1965)
• Irene Dunneb. 1898USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and singer (1898–1990)
• Princess Irene, Duchess of Aostab. 1904GRnot in their usual nameGreek princess, Queen consort of Croatia, Duchess of Aosta (1904–1974)
• Irena Sendlerb. 1910PLPolish resistance fighter and Holocaust rescuer (1910-2008)
• Princess Irene of Greece and Denmarkb. 1942ESnot in their usual namePrincess of Greece and Denmark (1942–2026)
• Irena Szewińskab. 1946PLPolish sprinter and sports official (1946–2018)
• Irene Mecchib. 1949USnot in their usual nameAmerican writer for television, movies, newspapers, and Broadway (born 1949)
• Irene Carab. 1959USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer and actress (1959–2022)
• Elizabeth Banksb. 1974USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and director
• Emily VanCampb. 1986CAnot in their usual nameCanadian actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 777 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Irena?

We estimate roughly 1.1 million people bear Irena (counting its spellings and scripts) across 16 countries in our records.

In which country does Irena have the most bearers?

Irena is most frequently recorded in Russia, where it is most often spelled ирина.

How common is Irena compared with other names?

In Russia, Irena is the 10th most common given name of 418,751 given names recorded there.

Is Irena a male or female name?

Irena is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Irena mean?

Recorded meaning: Greek-origin name meaning “peace”; used for women.