Is Helena a bit boring?

[Messalena]

What do you think of Helena?

I’d semi forgotten about it but its clean, simple sound really appeals to me (would pronounce with stress on the first syllable, like H Bonham Carter).

Helen is a family name so it appeals from that perspective too.

Our other favourite was/is Apolline, which I realise is a lot more “out there”... What do you think? Is Helena a bit dull in comparison? How about Helena Apolline as a combo, maybe?

No, it's beautiful!

Beautiful! One of my favourite names. I know one, and she gets a fair amount of mispronunciation, but it's a lovely timeless name in my opinion.

Beautiful. I also love it spelt Helaina

Much prefer it to Helen and great with the middle name

Great name, not boring at all. Don’t like Apolline though, sorry.

Apolline is pronounced Ap ol een

It’s lovely, one of my favourite names. I like Apolline too.

Thanks all!

I only really like the HEL-eh-na pronunciation, dislike both he-LAY-na and he-LEE-na. So I guess that’s a strike against since a lot of these responses cite different pronunciations.

Apolline is pronounced “een” at the end and I love Polly for short so am totally fine with that! I think we’ll probably stick with it but I realise it’s quite a big, unusual name and I hope she won’t resent it. I guess she could be Polly then though.

Decisions decisions! Maybe Apolline Helen then? Our other favourite middle name is Apolline Kate. Which do people prefer?

I have a 2 year old Helena and we've had nothing but lovely comments on her name. Sometimes people pronounce it differently (we pronounce it Helen-a) but it's easily corrected and we like all the pronunciations. We call her Nell or Nellie for short.

Apolline Kate!

Helena is a beautiful name. I know an adult Helena and she's one of the nicest women I've ever met. Not sure Appoline would work as a middle name with the two 'a' sounds next to each other? I don't think the pronunciation would be difficult. I think most people would pronounce as helen-a?

It's a gorgeous name, elegant & classy.

Love Helena! Also like Halina, a bit different but not too out there.

I wanted Helena if I had a girl (the same way your pronouncing it), absolutely love it and Helen is my mums middle name but MIL ripped it the shreds said it was an old lady name. Would still have it as a front runner if I have another baby though.

I like it. I haven’t heard it in long time.

Apolline Helena is lovely, as is Polly Helena if she is known as Polly (which I also like a lot).

I love Helena, pronounced the way you prefer. Much better than Apolline. Helena Apolline is nice though

I like Helena but don't like the two pronunciations in English, especially not Hellayna.

Apolline is beautiful and easy to pronounce in most languages.

It's a lovely name, and I would say elegant and understated rather than boring. Apolline is okay but I prefer Helena. As a combo I think it's pretty good even though the end of Helena and beginning of Apolline run into each other.

Not boring, but I think I actually prefer just Helen (possibly because I've known some very nice Helens and no Helenas at all). I would go with the HELena pronunciation too.

I quite like Apolline and Polly, but I'm not sure about the "a...a" problem. Helen Apolline would get around it, as would Apolline Helen/Helena. Actually I think I'd like Polly Helen best of all the possible variations, but none of them is awful.

Thank you for all the feedback. We still have a few weeks so I’m going to let all these lovely combos stew for a while and hopefully one sticks!

No, I think Helena is a lovely name.

It’s one of my middle names, and my niece is called it too. We pronounce it HelAYna in our family but the more common, English version is just as lovely.

I love it. It's DD2's name and the least "boring" name of all my DCs. :)
I think you might need another name between Helena and Apolline so that it flows better - this is good because your DD will have three names to choose from.

I like Helena and Helen. Both are classic. Apolline is a bit too out there for me. How about Polly?