Eleanor, Elena or Elinor

[lisbapalea]

What are everyone's thoughts on the of Eleanor? I think that way is my preference but wondered what others think.

Also wondered what likely nicknames you'd get for Eleanor - Ellie, Elle, Nelly, Nell?

And lastly, any suggestions for a middle name following Eleanor? Our surname is three syllables and ends with an 'ee' sound, so ideally I would be after a one syllable middle name.

Thanks!

Definitely Elinor, but then I'm a big Pride and Prejudice fan!

Eleanor, I had a maiden name that is a slight 'misspelling' of something much commoner - drive me nuts as everyone got it wrong, even after I'd spelt it out.

I went with Elanor (nn Ellie)

It's Samwise Gamgee's daughter in Lord of the Rings. (If you watched the DVDs the little blonde girl who greets Sam right at the end of the trilogy).

El elvish for sun
Anor elvish for star

It's also a flower that grew in Lothlórien. Sam wanted a flower name as per Hobbit tradition.

Ironically my Elanor is going to be very, very tall. Middle name Grace after her paternal great-grandmother.

Elfy - my mother called me this after LOTR - in her case about 30 years before the films SHe went for the traditional spelling because she thought people would get Elanor wrong. Ironically that's how people mi-spell it!

I had the name picked for about 20 years before I used it My version is only 4yo and we'll no doubt have to correct from time to time.

My favorite was on the school application. I filled out Elanor but someone helpfully corrected it for me by the time I got the offer of a place...

Elinor.

I think it looks sleeker.

I'm an Eleanor. Sometimes go by Nell or Nellie (mainly my dad), sometimes just gets shortened to El. Never Ellie, can't stand it. Preferred is full name if I'm honest.
I love my name, even though I've had a life of correcting spelling. Absolutely love it. It's an old family name so means a great deal to me too.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone - hadn't checked for a few days so was a surprise to see so many responses!

I am really keen on Eleanor now. I do love Elena for the scandi connection but just not sure on the pronunciation dilemma. I am seeing my Mum later (she's the Swedish one), so will ask her opinion - could be a gamble...!

We still need to think of a middle name, but am pretty sold on Eleanor as a first name now, so thanks all!

ELENA

Elena! Thats our first choice if its a girl. The other two i would pronounce 'or' and i think 'a' sounds so much more feminine. Just my opinion though.
People say Elena should be pronounced El-ay-na but i think say it how you want. Elena is spelt El-E-na so why is it not said like that? Just because one day somebody decided that was how it would be doesn't mean you can't change it. Its not an unreasonable prenunciation that your child will hate you for.

I know an Elena and she is El ay na - never heard of it being pronounced any other way. Helena I have heard as Hel ay na or Hel enna but not Elena

I knew an elena pronounced ellen-a. (el-uh-na? not sure how to explain it. but pretty much as i would pronounce eleanor) she was Greek Cypriot so not sure if that makes a difference.

Eleanor, Elinor just looks like its spelled incorrectly

I like:
Eleanor Paige (poss too close to Ellen Page though)
Eleanor Jude
Eleanor Jade
Eleanor Gayle
And my favourite: Eleanor Dawn

Eleanor Grace

It depends how you intend to say it.
Elinor - Ell in or
Eleanor - ell a nor
Elena - El en a or El ay na.

Personally I love Elinor. My last baby was going to be Elinor Grace, right from day one.

Eleanor (biased)

She will need to spell it all the time.
She will get called different nicknames by different groups of people.
She will get 7 different spellings on Christmas cards from her class at school in one year. Well. Maybe not, but you get my point.

But it's a fab name, albeit more common than it was for me growing up. Which actually is not a bad thing as I used to fruitlessly search every rack of personalised crap in shops looking for something with my name on, which now I can easily find.

Eleanor is lovely and I quite like the nickname nelly x

I think that the three names all have different pronunciations, so I'd chose on the basis of which sound I liked best. For middle names how about:

Anne
Eve
Jane/Jean
Joyce
Iris
Louise

I think I would just go for Eleanor. Classy, timeless, elegant.

The heavy emphasis on the first E of Elena for Italians, on the second E for Russians/Spanish would just end up confusing everyone. Though I love it. (dd's middle name was the Italian Elena for half an hour till dp changed his mind...)

Got to be Eleanor

Nn Nell or Nellie, or El (not keen on Elly, personally )

How about Joy / Grace

I too pronouce elena differently to Eleanor. Not a huge fan of the name full stop t be honest but would go with Eleanor.

Elinor seems more simple and fresh, whereas Eleanor is heavier. Elena is a completely different name.