Helen is from the Greek Helénē — possibly from helénē (torch, bright). Helen of Troy — daughter of Leda and Zeus, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, whose abduction by the Trojan prince Paris launched the Trojan War, "the face that launched a thousand ships." Helen Keller (1880-1968) — the deaf-blind American author and activist who graduated from Radcliffe College and became a leading 20th-century lecturer on disability rights, socialism, and women's suffrage. Helen Mirren (Oscar-winning actress), Helen Clark (NZ PM, UNDP head), Helen Suzman (South African anti-apartheid MP) — the name carries the weight of myth and modern achievement.
Featured throughout Homer's Iliad and Helen Keller's The Story of My Life (1903).
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Helen reduce to 8, The Visionary. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.