Lene

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Λενε in GR Greece.

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 27 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◐

Lene is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Portuguese given name38K records spelled Lene9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, Philippines, United States, Spain

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian

  Also written Lënë, Leñe, Lené, Lène, Léné

• English given name30K records spelled Lene35 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Germany, Brazil, Philippines

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Lene', Lené, Leneja, Léne, Lene’

• French given name2.4K records spelled Lene14 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Norway, United States, Spain

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Lène, Léné, Léne, Lené, Lèné

• a separate given name1.8K records spelled Lene2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, United States, Türkiye, Canada

  Also written Lène

• a separate given name1.6K records spelled Lene5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Norway, United Kingdom, India

  Also written Léne, Léné, Lène, Lené

• Albanian given name893 records spelled Lene3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Albania, United States

  Also written Lenë, Lenê

• Turkish given name675 records spelled Lene3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, Syria, Norway, Philippines

  Languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani

  Also written Lênê

52 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●

Lene 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, Lene är en dansk kortform av namn som Magdalene (→ Magdalena) eller Helene (→ Helena).

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• German and Danish: aphetic short form of both Helene (see HELEN ) and MAGDALENE . It is very frequently used as an independent given name, not directly connected with either of these full forms, and was the third commonest female name in use in Denmark in 1965.

  as a word

• In Swedish, definite natural masculine singular of len

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

• In English, The smooth breathing (spiritus lenis).

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

• In Dutch, singular present subjunctive of lenen

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

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●

NO SSB — Navn (1880–present) — 73 years between 1946–2021. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Lene Køppenb. 1953DKbadminton player
• Lene Haub. 1959DKDanish physicist
• Lene Kaaberbølb. 1960DKDanish writer
• Lene Børglumb. 1961DKDanish film producer
• Lene Espersenb. 1965DKDanish politician
• Lene Moyell Johansenb. 1968DKpolitician, High commissioner in the Faroe Islands
• Lene Grawford Nystrømb. 1973NONorwegian musician (1973-)
• Lene Marlinb. 1980NONorwegian musician
• Lene Laib. 1989TWTaiwanese actress and model
• Lene Cecilia Sparrokb. 1997NOSouthern Sámi actress and reindeer herder from Norway

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 · 429 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Lene?

We estimate roughly 43 thousand people bear Lene (counting its spellings and scripts) across 13 countries in our records.

In which country does Lene have the most bearers?

We estimate about 29 thousand people bear Lene in Denmark, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled lene.

Where is Lene most common?

Lene is densest in Denmark, where the national register counts about 1 in 200 people carrying it.

How common is Lene compared with other names?

In Denmark, Lene is the 35th most common given name of 31,396 given names recorded there.

Is Lene a male or female name?

Lene 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 Lene mean?

Recorded meaning: to lean