Helena

Helena is Helen in a long skirt, drawn from the Greek helene, often linked to brightness or the shining light. It belongs to saints and empresses, to a heroine of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, to Helena Bonham Carter, whose arched theatricality suits the name exactly. Pronounced heh-LAY-nah in much of Europe and HEL-eh-nah in America, it bends gracefully to either accent. The name has been slowly re-ascending U.S. charts and now sits in the mid-400s, carried by parents drawn to its slender vowels and scholarly poise. There is real composure here, never fussy, always a little regal.