Historical Link Between the Names “Aleyna” and “Elena”

Maybe everyone knows that this name, which has been popular lately, It has an Arabic meaning While we think that the event actually touches on a historical point.

Sevan Nişanyan, who is both a writer and famous for his studies in the field of etymology in our country, put forward this claim in 2022. prepared by Glossary of NamesHe also focused on the meanings of the names. The name Aleyna is just one of them.

According to the Turkish Language Association, the name Aleyna has two meanings. In addition to the meaning of “having peace and beauty, in peace”, it also has the meaning of “on us” or “our right” in Arabic.

In the Qur’an, “the meaning of aleynâ; It means “on us, on us”. Nisanyan means “We believe in God and what has been revealed to us”. In the 84th verse of Al-i Imran Surah He gives the example of “âmennâ billâhi ve mâ unzile aleynâ”. Maybe many people name their child according to this meaning, but Sevan Nişanyan makes an interesting conclusion about the origin of the name Aleyna in the country by making a strange observation.

In 2015, 2270 people aged 18 and over with the name Aleyna were registered.

Since then, this number has increased many times over with the younger ones born in 2015 and later. According to the transmission The name Aleyna became widespread in our country in 1993-94. When he examines the records, he says that almost all of the people named Aleyna, who were born before 1986, are non-Muslims from the Soviet Republics and neighboring countries.

According to the year of his research, Aleynas registered in the population, 25 Moldovans, 20-odd Russians, the rest Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan countries such as When he looked at the mother/father names of these people, he determined that they were also of Russian origin.

Aleyna and Elena were actually the same name.

According to Nişanyan, the name Aleyna is a different spelling of Elena. The name of the saint mother of the former Roman Emperor Constantine I is Eleni.

Let’s come to Türkiye records. “The first Turkish Aleyna” was born in 1977. Until 1990, this name was considered quite rare. However, in these years, a great prevalence is seen in the use of the name Aleyna in Trabzon. When the population of Trabzon is examined on May 10, 1990, 804 registered Aleyna names are seen. The reason for this is very likely to have something to do with the increasing number of Soviet citizen women in Trabzon in those years.

The name Elena of Christian origin, Shortly after it became widespread in Trabzon, it spread to Turkey as Aleyna. It is now one of the most widely used names.