Comments for JELENA:

I'm a half Croatian, half Montenegrean living in Croatia and I could tell you as a fact that name JELENA does not have much to do with HELENA simply because JELEN in Serbo-Croatian means DEER and JELENA would directly mean 'from the deer' or even the female deer.

-- zeljko  12/15/2004

Jelena is a very nice name. Jelena is pronounced Yelena. In Serbian jelen means deer.

-- jelena36  3/29/2005

Hello I am from Croatia. Jelena is south Slavic variation of the name Helena. It is not a Croatian name. It is used in Serbia or Monte Negro. Croatians rather use original Helena and we know why.

-- hp22er22  7/1/2005

It's not true that Jelena isn't a Croatian name! The Croats even had royalty named Jelena, so...

-- beatrice  12/26/2005

My name is Jelena (pronounced Yelena). I am from Serbia and know for sure that the meaning of this name is the same as for Helena. It's the same name, only a Slavic version.
Jelen - does mean deer in Serbocroatian, but the name is not related to this.
As well as I know, Jelena or Helena has old Greek origin and means something like Sunshine.

-- Jelenaa  10/22/2005

My name is Jelena (yeh-leh-nah), and I strongly dislike it. I live in the U.S., and people always say it wrong. For example, on the first day of every new school year when teachers call roll, they say 'Jeh-leeh-nah', and it takes me at least 20 seconds for me to explain the pronunciation to them. It is a lovely name, but if you name your daughter this, beware of mispronunciations.

-- sumboD  2/5/2006

Jelena Katina is a Russian singer from the group Taty.

-- Maggie_Simpson  8/4/2006

I was told that the name is derived from the male version of Julias. From my Italian side. My second son is named Julian after my mother's father meaning fair-haired one. Not knowing he ended up with blonde hair, blue eyes. So far as origin, I have never heard of Serbian meaning "deer". If you are from certain areas in Italy, you would pronounce "Jelena" as "J" sound or as an "H" sound. I think that is where Helen came from.

-- jelena puccio  9/22/2006

It also means 'deer' in Serbian.

-- Lumosnight  12/20/2006

A girl I knew with this name had so much trouble with people mispronouncing it, she started spelling it 'Yellina' just to avoid being called 'Ja-LEE-nah' one more time.

-- trista  12/23/2006

Also used in Slovenia.

-- earthnut  7/18/2007

Jelena Jankovic with Jamie Murray won the mixed doubles at Wimbledon.

-- lowcal historyan  11/24/2007

Jelena Dokić is an Australian tennis player with a Serbian and Croatian background.

-- katis  2/5/2009

Jelena is a Slavic name. It's a very common mistake that people connect it to Helen/Helena. Very similar but not even close in etymology. Slavic people in pre-Christian times had very strong bond with nature and many names derive from flowers and trees as well as animals. The name comes from the word "jela" meaning "fir tree" with a VERY common ending "-ena" or "-ena" (although the "-en"/"-an" are from the stem word in adjective form). Alternatively the name could be from the word for "deer" as animal names are used in personal names as well. The name was equated to Helen due to its similar spelling and pronunciation. The name is found amongst Slavic peoples even before Slavic-Greek interaction. Amongst Slavs the Greek name is usually found as Elena both an equivalent to Greek Helena/Elena. Russians have Elena, as do Macedonians and Bulgarians but also Jelena.

-- Anonymous User  7/4/2009

Male: Jelen, Jelenko, Jelibor, Jelimil, Jelimir, Jelinko.

Female: Jela, Jelena, Jelenka, Jelibora, Jeliborka, Jelika, Jelina, Jelinka, Jelica, Jelka, Jelkica, Jeluša.

All of these names are found in old Slavic records, placenames etc. When Slavs practically haven't heard of Greek Helen/Helena. The male names and other variations prove without a doubt that the name is either from "deer" or "fir tree" or both.

Jelka, Jelkica clearly show that the name means fir tree because the former name is also a noun for the Christmas tree and the latter a diminutive of the former. Jela is a synonym for "jelka".

-- mssdm  7/4/2009

Key: Meaning/History Usage Pronunciation Famous Bearer Personal Impression Other

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