Elena Eleanor pronunciation

[firstpregnancy1]

I personally would pronounce Eleanor and Elena exactly the same - eh le na (with the stress on the first syllable)

If I want that pronunciation, should I use Eleanor or elena ?

I worry that with Eleanor there will be SOME people who pronounce it eh le NOR. I know this would really irritate me.

Equally , would Elena be pronounced by some people as eh LAY na or eh-LEN-a ?

Anyone know/ got an Eleanor / Elena who can share their findings ?

Thank you!

Do those who say Elean-a for Eleanor also say Victa and Hecta for Victor and Hector?

And Ah for Or

Elana....el a na
Eleanor....el a nor

I have never heard Eleanor pronounced with an 'ah' sound at the end. I'm Irish but live in England. Only Ellen-er or Ellen-or
I have heard Elena pronounced as Ellen-ah (English) and Elaine-ah (Latvian/Lithuanian/Polish)

'Do those who say Elean-a for Eleanor also say Victa and Hecta for Victor and Hector?'

Yep!

And we do have both an Eleanor and a Hector in the extended family.

It's Ellen-uh and Hect-uh.

We also have a Jasper who is Jasp-uh.

And a Sophia who is Sophie-uh!

Elena is El-AY-na. It would never occur to me that anyone would pronounce it like Eleanor.

Eleanor is -or at end, but if said quickly in my accent, it can sound like -uh at the end.

Do those who say Elean-a for Eleanor also say Victa and Hecta for Victor and Hector?

Of course. Why is that funny?

If you put a double-R at the end instead of just one, we'd modify the vowel in the direction of O, but there still wouldn't be a pronounced R at the end.

I know an Elena (eh-lay-na), an Ellena (Eh-lah-nah) and an Eleanor (Eh-lah-nor)

I just keep singing the theme tune to Elena of Avalor over and over in my head.

I'm in Wales and I say El-uh-nor for Eleanor and El-ay-nuh for Elena. Eleanor is often spelt Elinor here though.

@Wtfdidwedo, it's Eleanor of Aquitaine!

I would pronounce Eleanor and Elena the same as you - El-eh-na. I am an Eleanor and HATE the NOR pronunciation. I think it's from kids trying to annoy me when I was a kid. Therefore I rarely use Eleanor any more even though I like it with the NA and so I have considered reinventing myself/going back to it now I'm a grown up!!!

Haven't RTFT, so don't know if this has been suggested, but I think if you spelt it 'Ellena' you would get the pronunciation you want.

I would've thought Eleanor is pronounced el-ah-nor, how it is spelt. If you definitely want an 'na' sound at the end it may be easier to go with Elena. Good luck with your decision, all lovely names

My sister is Elena and it's Ella-na

Name changed for this as it is possibly outing!

I have a 12 year old Eleanor. We live in London. We wanted an El-en-or pronunciation and have stuck with it BUT pretty much without exception, everyone else thinks it is El-en-nuh. Even when she introduces herself as El-en-or, the response will be "oh hi, El-en-nuh". Very frustrating.
So I would go for "Eleanor" in your position!

Also - it was reading a similar thread on here 12 years ago that made me think Eleanor was commonly pronounced as El-en-nor!
After DD was born I very quickly learnt that MN was wrong!!

In Glaswegian so I'd pronounce Elena, Elle-ay-nah and Eleanor Elle-eh-nor... probably butchering 2 lovely names tbh lol

I think it's so area dependent!

We're also London and all say Ellen-uh. We have Irish and American friends who all say Ella-nor.

It's just one of those names.

My Eleanor is El-a-nor. Hates being called El-uh-nuh. (And has to regularly correct people)

Hi OP. My sister is an Eleanor (pronounced El-en-ah). Occasionally people say El-eh-NOR, but it's rare

I'm an Eleanor, and I am Elenuh, stress on first syllable. That is the standard pronunciation in RP. And yes, the or in Victor and Hector would also be pronounced uh (unstressed vowel) in my accent, and my part of England (south west). I really don't like the ore sound in my name in a standard English accent.

However, I have quite a lot of family with rhotic accents (Scotland, Ireland, Canada, USA) and when they say Elenore it sounds right, and so I really don't mind with them, or others with a Rhoticity accent.

Rhoticity is a typo, meant to be rhotic!

El-en-ore and el-en-ah here.
I knew an Eleyna at school so that's how I woukd spell the name you are after

Since these are two totally different names with completely different pronunciations, why would you pronounce them the same way? Eleanor has an 'r' at the end and Elena hasn't. Quite different. If you don't want your child's name to end with a consonant, then pick Elena. And the emphasis is not on the last syllable, its on the first. It isn't like either of these names is uncommon, either.

Each name has (at least) two different recognised pronunciations, that's the problem, not that Eleanor and Elena are different names/pronounced differently (or in some cases the same) as each other.