Yelena?

Helena has at least three different pronunciations, which is why the OP is asking.

My DD’s pronounced it the same way as Helena Christensen. There’s also Helena Bonham-Carter. And then it can also be pronounced to rhyme with Selena.

I would pronounce it to rhyme with Helena.

I would pronounce as Yell-eh-nah and am actually surprised at the different pronunciations of this name.

It's much nicer than Alexandra.

I would pronounce it like Selena

Yell-ee-na

Like Selena but with a Y

I don't think anyone would say it YELL-en-uh. That would be a bit weird!

She is the sister of Black Widow in the Marvel movies so it's more mainstream. Pronounced Yel-AY-nuh

Yel-en-ah

Yel-en-ah it's the way I always pronounce it in my head as it's the name of the main Character in my favourite book series. I have never heard one in real life but really like the name. It's one of those names where you might have to tell people which pronunciation you prefer but the people should have no issues!

Helen is said Hel-en so Helena should really be Hel-en-ah. Helena pronounced Hell-ay-nah should be spel Helaina, similar to Elaina surely? Elena is El-en-ah.

So Yelena would be Yel-en-ah in my part of the woods.

I’d pronounce it the Russian way. But I much prefer Alexandra.

My partner is foreign and I am English, we live in England. We chose a name which was pronounced phonetically to avoid this issue. Especially as his surname is anything but way to pronounce or spell!!

I would pronounce Yelena- ye- lay- nah

What Miranda said)) Lena is a pretty name btw but it is very dated (at least in Russia not sure about 🇺🇦) most lenas are 30+.

I think the issue would be the stress on one syllable: YELL-a-nuh vs yel-AY-nuh. But we have the same thing with the English Helena: HEL-un-uh or heh-LEH-nuh or hel-LAY-nuh. Elena would also have similar: EL-len-uh vs el-LEN-uh or eh-LAY-nuh. Just consider how much you mind correcting people so that they say it your way, and people getting it wrong even after corrected.

@EileenGC Im Russian and you're 100% wrong about the pronunciation. Yelayna would be the correct pronunciation in most UK accents. Definitely not El eh na.

Russian. 'E' is actually 'ye' hence the y at the front of yelena. It's not written like that in Cyrillic. See alao Yekaterina/Ekaterina. It's the same name and actually pronounced with the ye sound at the front in the second variant. The ye creates a long vowel sound which to anglophones woukd be ay. It's definitely not the short vowel sound of eh.
Before spouting off sort out your facts first

Helena can also be Hel-ee-na as well as Helen-a and Hel-ay-na. Personally I would probably think that Yel-ay-na is most likely for Yelena.

@EileenGC, I would say Elena as El-ay-na. Yelena,

I would say as YEL-yay-na, because that is how the Yelena I know says her name.

What I was trying to get across was that in some languages the sound that in English is transcribed as Ay is not the ay sound (as in Jayne) , or the eh sound (as in Yet). It's sort of the ay sound without the 'y' bit

If you go to google translate english-spanish, and type Elena then listen to both english and spanish, they don't sound the same

If you do english-russian and type Helena, and listen to both you'll hear why I say Yel-yay-na.

I strongly suspect that your ‘EH’ is what people are meaning by ‘AY’.

It is not. EH and AY are two different sounds. I have that exact syllable in my name and if you switch them around, they make a different name. Say them out loud, they don’t sound the same.

The OP asked whether Yelena would be mispronounced (she said she pronounces it like it’s spelt - like in el-en-ah - according to her first post). People said it wouldn’t be mispronounced but pointed out they’d say ay instead of eh.

That is a different pronunciation (whether correct or not is a different question - neither option would be ‘wrong’ in my opinion). It won’t be pronounced Yeleanor, but it also won’t be pronounced like the OP would.

@WhoppingBigBackside it does have the sound. The first E in Elena is pronounced eh, the second one can also be said that way. You wouldn’t say Ay-lay-na, would you?

It’s not patronising to point out that people’s default pronunciation isn’t the original one. I’ve had people in the UK telling me I don’t know how to say my own name because they can’t work out the spelling from my pronunciation. Now that’s patronising. People saying ‘like the Spanish Eh-lay-na’ are patronising.

Yell- ay- na

The one I know is Russian.

@EdgeOfTheSky, @EileenGC, the problem with transcribing is that English doesn't have the e sound in the middle of Elena. The nearest is ay, but it doesn't have the 'y' sound

Eileen. (Pron. EYE-Leen) I strongly suspect that your ‘EH’ is what people are meaning by ‘AY’.

That’s the difficulty with a non phonetic language

I know a Serbian Jelena pronounced ye-le-nuh so would pronounce it the same.

Seriously - could you be more patronising?