Helen or Helena

[blondie72]

My husband Prefers the first... I'm not so sure, what do you think?

I have a 14 year old Helen who loves her name and has always been the only one in her year group. I think it's even less used now than when she was born. I do like Helena too.

Love Helen, also like Helena but I prefer Eleanor to Helena as a similar sounding name.

I prefer Helen.

I'm another Helen and have never come across anyone under my age (36) with the same name, certainly not a child. There was a few of us with the same name growing up but just isn't so common these days (which is a good thing if you want something a bit different).

The face that launched a thousand ships :)

Hell-en-er is the only nice way of pronouncing it IMO. Hell-eee-ner or Hell-ay-ner make me cringe. Sorry!

Helena is a much nicer name than Helen.

There were two in my year at school Looney, and that would have been the year below you!

I prefer Helena. Lovely name.

Helen is nicer :)

Also a Helen, used to hate it as a child, now I love it. It is simple, people can pronounce it and spell it. It isn't fancy or pretentious and is timeless unlike Helena which is very much a name of now and not so straightforward to pronounce. I'd just go for Helen. She's also likely to be the only Helen in her class at school, which is certainly not guaranteed for a Helena.

Hell-en-er

Lovely lovely name. My gt grandmother, grandmother, me and dd all have it in amongst our names.

it's got to be Helena!

I love helena [hell-ay-na] is is one of my top girls names for if we ever have girls.

Helena is not a "name of now" and IME any Helena is far more likely to be the only one in her class than a Helen would be.

Helen is one of those names that now is most common on a woman in her late 30s/early 40s or a small child. It has definitely become trendy again, which is one of the reasons why I prefer Helena over it.

I know a baby Helena who they've nicknamed Lainey. Works as Helena seems a bit too grown up for first few years. Pronounced/spelled differently depending if it's the American or German version (think Heidi Klum's daughter is nicknamed Lenny but pronounced more like a lai-ney)

I love both of them, but would wonder at nn's - do you have any in mind OP?

Well considering there were 143 Helena's born in 2011 and 53 Helen's I guess neither are that likely to have another one of their name in their class but Helena is slightly more likely to do so.
Both names are on the decline apparently though so either would work for slightly less common but not unheard of.