Page 2 | How would you pronounce Elena?

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0ctavia · 02/03/2025 20:30

Scottish people will probably pronounce it Ell en ah.
or maybe Elaine Ah.

Remember it’s a popular name in many counties and is pronounced in many ways. People can’t guess how you want it pronounced, you will have to tell them and then remind them. If that will bother you, choose a different name.

She will almost certainly get called Ellie by the kids at school .

Original poster

Goscat · 02/03/2025 20:24

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 02/03/2025 20:13

Sorry - my last post was meant to quote @tipsandtoes I'll bow out now - sorry for the unintended derail, OP. It's a lovely name whichever way it's pronounced imo!

Thank you! And I agree anlbout the English pronunciation! Hadn't thought about it, but my cousin's from Cambridge say Eleanor exactly like you're describing (slightly more aw sound at the end that ah, but sounds very similar!)

OP posts:

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 02/03/2025 20:13

Sorry - my last post was meant to quote @tipsandtoes I'll bow out now - sorry for the unintended derail, OP. It's a lovely name whichever way it's pronounced imo!

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 02/03/2025 20:12

<Sigh>. People who don't know the phonetic alphabet often transcribe that sound (which is known as a 'schwa' in linguistic terminology) as 'uh'. It's hard to know how to write it down, especially when doing so for a bunch of people who all have different accents!

I don't know how you personally are hearing the 'uh' in your head when you read my post. Maybe like an 'ooh' sound? That's not what it is. Anyway... if you listen to the Beatles singing Eleanor Rigby, you won't hear 'or' on the end of the name. You'll hear what I mean by 'uh'. I've lived in England all my life, have known and taught umpteen Eleanors and they all pronounced it like that. Except the one Scottish one I knew.

SaveMeFromMyBoobs · 02/03/2025 20:00

I'd say it how told to say it!

I know several Elenas pronounced differently.
Eh-len-ah
Ell-ay-nah
Elnah

Once baby is old enough to tell people will be fine.

tipsandtoes · 02/03/2025 19:57

@AllProperTeaIsTheft
Actually make that one person. You. The other person has replied that theirs was a typo

tipsandtoes · 02/03/2025 19:55

@AllProperTeaIsTheft

Yes, it is the normal way of pronouncing it in England.
Huh?
Literally no one but two people in here are saying it is pronounced with no second 'n' sound

WellsAndThistles · 02/03/2025 19:47

Scottish!

Eh-lee-nah

I prefer Elana - Eh-la-na

purpleme12 · 02/03/2025 19:46

I also love they pronounce Ofelia in Spanish. Think it's beautiful and I would absolutely name my child that name.

But the English version is Ophelia and pronounced different and i don't love that one at all

Original poster

Goscat · 02/03/2025 19:46

Bananasyousay · 02/03/2025 19:27

Hey OP my daughter is Elena. We wanted to have the same as you, pronounced Eh LEH na (Central America) but we knew she’d just have a lifetime of correcting people in UK calling her Elaine-er or Eleanor so we kept the Elena spelling but the Ellen-ah pronunciation (but she does know the correct way to pronounce it and the origins of her name - she may well change it when she’s old enough to make that decision and that would be her choice) I do call her Eh LEH na when telling her off sometimes 😂

Show quote history

Hahaha love this. We have an Emilio and he is eh-me-lee-oh (4 syllables) in the UK, but we stick to eh-meel-yo in the house especially when fired up 🤣

OP posts:

NotVeryFunny · 02/03/2025 19:43

@tipsandtoes sorry that's a typo. Should be an n, so "na" at the end not "a"

Fontainebleau007 · 02/03/2025 19:30

El-ay-na

MadeForThis · 02/03/2025 19:27

E-lay-na

Bananasyousay · 02/03/2025 19:27

Goscat · 02/03/2025 17:26

Latin family loving in the UK. We want to use this name but are unsure how Brits (Scots specifically will pronounce it?)

It should be Eh-LEH-na

Hey OP my daughter is Elena. We wanted to have the same as you, pronounced Eh LEH na (Central America) but we knew she’d just have a lifetime of correcting people in UK calling her Elaine-er or Eleanor so we kept the Elena spelling but the Ellen-ah pronunciation (but she does know the correct way to pronounce it and the origins of her name - she may well change it when she’s old enough to make that decision and that would be her choice) I do call her Eh LEH na when telling her off sometimes 😂

purpleme12 · 02/03/2025 19:22

I would say it the way you would OP
But I'm familiar with foreign languages
I honestly believe most people here would just pronounce it the normal English way.
I prefer your pronunciation but wouldn't name my child it because I'd only want it pronounced that way and I don't think people would

NatMoz · 02/03/2025 19:10

El-En-Ah

My daughter is Yelena so very similar but gets called Lena mostly (Len-ah)

Theextraordinaryisintheordinary · 02/03/2025 19:07

El Eee na

WaitingForMojo · 02/03/2025 19:06

In Wales, El-ENN-A (a as in Apple)

England Elaine-uh

TheMorels · 02/03/2025 19:03

Like the OP, I’d pronounce it Eh-LEH-na.

Completely different to Eleanor.

RaraRachael · 02/03/2025 19:01

How are people getting an uh sound at the end when it ends with an a?

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 02/03/2025 19:00

I'd pronounce it El-ay-na unless I heard the person concerned (or her parents) pronounce it differently, in which case I'd follow their lead.

Cotswoldmama · 02/03/2025 18:58

Eh- len- uh

RaraRachael · 02/03/2025 18:57

I'm Scottish and would pronounce it as Eh-lay-na.

Although there was one at school who was Eh-lee-na

BeTaupeViewer · 02/03/2025 18:52

I named my daughter this (husband is Spanish).
We call her Eh-LEN-ah the Spanish way.
She does get a lot of EL-len-uh like Eleanor.
I tend to introduce her as Eh-LAY-nuh to get closer to the right pronunciation as I think insisting on the Spanish pronunciation is unrealistic.
We also call her Lena as a nickname pronounced LEN-uh which I think also makes it different to Eleanor.

It's a beautiful name and i dont regret it but I think you do have to accept some variation in pronunciation or be willing to correct people a lot.

RickiRaccoon · 02/03/2025 18:52

I'd ask because it's one of those names with different pronunciations. I'd guess e-LAY-nah but realise it could also be EL-le-nah or e-LEE-nah.