Portia or Helena?

[imustbepatient]

I think these are the two favourites from our long short list! Today anyway...

I love Portia but am perhaps leaning more towards Helena because it has so many options for nn / shortenings. Please can you help by saying what nn you would use for Portia? Tia is the one we've thought of but are there any others?

Thanks!

I love Helena :).

Tia the only shortening I can think of for Portia too.

I really love Portia, but could never use it as it would sound bonkers with our Irish Surname.

My vote is Portia.

How is Portia pronounced? I've never heard it, only seen it written down.

It looks like it should be Port-Ia or Por-Tia

Por-cha (soft tia)

I love Portia and considered it for our dd but the few people I mentioned it to as a possibility thought I wanted to name her after a porche car, which put me off!

I think Portia is lovely! Elegant, feminine and not overused.

Helena is nice too but the two pronunciations would put me off (HELL-ena vs Hel-AY-na). How about Helen?

Helena is lovely. Portia reminds me too much of the car

Helena for me by a mile. Would use Nell as a NN personally.

Helena for me.
Portia is lovely, but hard to pronounce so she'll have a life time of correcting people!

Both are lovely but for me Helena is best name ever . Pronounce hell-en-ah nice, don't much like hell-ay-nah but isn't a problem most people get it right.

No nickname - perhaps "H"

I love both. Helena is very pretty - would pronounce "Helluhnuh", probably nn Helly. Portia gorgeous - Polly as a nickname?

Helena. Portia is nice but too.... Porsche-like

Helena. Portia is quite plummy imo.

Portia!

I love the name Portia but it sounds exactly like the car Porsche, which ruins it for me. Helena's ok.

Loving Portia.

Helena is lovely. Portia is the sort of name that Del Boy would give to his DD.

Agree with Bonnie re: Portia

Helena lovely. Very pretty and classy.

Portia is much nicer.Helena isn't a very pleasant sounding name imho. I don't like it at all.

Another vote for Helena.

Thanks everyone for your posts, all really helpful. It's so hard isn't it?! Opinions here seem to be about as split as they are with me. I worry too about people thinking of porsche the car instead of Portia as the name / fantastic inspiring Shakespeare character. For Helena we would go with He-LAY-na rather than Helen-a, which I know isn't everyone's preference but we like it! Nn would be Hellie or Lanie or Layna or whatever else she chooses as she grows. Polly is a nice idea for a nn for Portia when she is little, thanks for that suggestion!

Sigh. I suspect Helena is the safer option but still can't discount Portia as I've loved it since doing merchant of Venice at school as a 13 year old! Plus i met a very lovely portia when i was about 8 and it made a real impression. Perhaps we'll take a hat along to the delivery ward to pick from!

I love Helena - it just doesn't work with our surname.

However, Portia is also a lovely name (not helping, I know - but whichever you go for, at least you know they are both beautiful, elegant and classic names - they both make me think of the sort of woman who has swishy hair)

Thanks dontmind. I love the mental picture of DD2 having swishy hair!