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!

Elena is a really common name in Romania. Pronounced El-N-a. A very short, quick name. Since the only Elena I’ve known has been Romanian this is how I would pronounce it.

Eleanor is a much longer name. El-en-or.

I would say EllaNor and L ain ( rhymes with rain) A

I'm from the south east and have known a lot of Eleanors in my time and they've always been el-an-or pronunciations. Elena I've known fewer but have mainly been e-lay-nah though a few were Ell-a-nah.

That said, if someone corrected me I'd make an effort to say it as they had. My surname is often mispronounced and I just correct people while saying yes it weird because it is, I only get irritated by people who continue to mispronounce. Similarly with my first name which is an accepted but not as common spelling.

I would pronounce Eleanor as Ella-nuh. I assumed most would until reading this thread!

Elena I would be unsure of whether to say Ella-nuh or E-LAY-na.

Shame Eleaner isn’t an accepted spelling really

Eleanor - Ellen-a
Elena - eh-lay-na

But some people will pronounce Eleanor with 'nor' on the end. All you can do is correct them if you don't like it.

Also - have NEVER heard people say Vic-torr and Hec-torr! If I did I'd notice and think it was strange.

I suppose the 'a' sound is more of an 'uh' sound.

Also - have NEVER heard people say Vic-torr and Hec-torr!
@blosstree how else would you pronounce those names?

@CremeEggThief Eleanor of Aquitaine doesn’t have a theme tune (at least not by Disney) - Elena of Avalor does!

Vic-tuh and Hec-tuh. I've lived in multiple areas of the UK and never heard it any differently, I know one Victor and three Hectors!

I am an Eleanor (See name change). I spend my whole life correcting people to say Elea-nor rather than Elean-uh. I Hate the -nut ending as much as other share the -nor ending. Also ITS NOT A GOOD NAME. See how many of us don’t use it on this thread! I see it so often recommended on MN and I always want to say - nooooo! I know four fellow Eleanor’s around my age, I use my middle name, everyone else is an Elle or Ellie. I barely even respond to it now.

@AnEleanor

I am an Eleanor (See name change). I spend my whole life correcting people to say Elea-nor rather than Elean-uh. I Hate the -nut ending as much as other share the -nor ending. Also ITS NOT A GOOD NAME. See how many of us don’t use it on this thread! I see it so often recommended on MN and I always want to say - nooooo! I know four fellow Eleanor’s around my age, I use my middle name, everyone else is an Elle or Ellie. I barely even respond to it now.

You force people to change their accent in order to give your preferred pronunciation?

It’s not an accent - it’s a name. Also I dont ‘force’ anyone to do anything, I just think less of them if they continue to ignore my preference for how I say my own name.

Elea-nor and Ele- na are not accent dependent differences. It’s like if I insisted on making Susan And Suzanne sound the same.

My daughter is called Elena and we pronounce it El-en-uh. I know there are lots of different pronunciations though and people do get confused with it. To me, Eleanor is how it looks, El-en-OR.

There’s an R at the end for a reason.
Of course vic-TOR and hec-TOR

Not of course in the least! Vic-TOR Meldrew?

ˈvɪktə and ˈhɛktə are the standard pronunciations of Victor and Hector in British English, according to Collins Dictionary. Both end in a schwa sound, (-uh), definitely not an -or sound.

Eleanor is different to both Victor and Hector. It has two pronunciations, according to the dictionary, ˈelənər, -ˌnɔr. The first pronunciation is more common, like -er.

There are no standard pronunciations in British English. All the attempt to claim that RP is standard British English are so problematic, however commonplace they might be.

And dictionaries are exactly the kind of institutions that perpetuate this bullshit.

Most of the rhotic accents in the uk wouldn’t say hec-TOR or vic-TOR anyway. They’d pronounce the r, but it’d be more of a ‘tur’ sound with little emphasis on the vowel. The vowel pretty much disappears if I say it. Hectr and victr.

Every Eleanor I have known has been Eh-le-nor (known a few) and I would pronounce Elena as eh-lay-nah. I know a couple of little Elena’s and it seems split on how their parents choose to pronounce their names.

Elena = el lay na
Eleanor - el a nor

If you want to be sure of your preferred pronunciation, I'd go for Helena, as in Bonham Carter.

The only Eleanor I know is pronounced Eleana.
Unless she is in trouble!

If you want to be sure of your preferred pronunciation, I'd go for Helena, as in Bonham Carter.

We considered Helena pn helen-a but when we canvassed opinions it was widely pn as hel-ay-na!

Yes @SporadicNamechange's way is how I would say Hector and Victor too. It's not TOR; it's more like TIR with the I being very brief but the R being pronounced.