Entry № 275 · Scottish origin

Aileen Aileen — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ AY-leen /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Scottish
Meaning
"Bright, shining (Scottish Helen)"
Syllables
2
First recorded
Medieval (Scottish)

A name that means "bright, shining (scottish helen)".

Aileen is the Scottish and Irish form of Helen — from the Greek helios (sun), meaning "bright" or "shining." Also linked to the Old German Adelina (noble).

Aileen Hernandez (1926-2017) was the American civil rights leader. Aileen Wuornos (1956-2002) was the convicted American serial killer.

Bright. The Scottish Helen.

The name in its native script.

Aileen
Transliteration
Aileen
Pronunciation
/ ˈeɪ.liːn /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Aileen stands.

Aileen does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Aileens before her.

Real people
Aileen Hernandez
American civil rights leader.
1926 – 2017
In fiction
Aileen
Common in Scottish fiction.

Names connected to Aileen.

The number behind Aileen.

1

The Leader

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Aileen reduce to 1, The Leader. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.