Helen

[Heh1991]

Thoughts on the name Helen?

My two best friends at Uni were called Helen and I've always loved the name - I think it sounds strong and classy.

And, when you get chatted up by history students and they discover your name is Helen they always attempt to pull you by comparing you to Helen Of Troy...

It’s beautiful! I slightly prefer Ellen (my daughter is Ellena!) x

[quote cloudsinthesky24]@Whatsyourflava
Unfortunately not. I have the equally ubiquitous 70's middle name - Louise.

At least 3 of the Helen's in my year at school also had Louise as their middle name too![/quote]
I’m one too! I’ve always hated if.

I’ve namechanged for this as I am yet another Helen Louise.

I have always objectively liked my name but I can tell you that there is one thing worse than being a 1970s Helen, and that is being a mid 1980s Helen. I made it through school and uni with no-one else of my name, then entered the workplace and was surrounded by Helens 10-15 years older than me. My age has never quite fitted my name. It’s comparable to a toddler in 2020 named Susan or Lauren.

Please, MNers, don’t give your child a wildly popular name on its way back down the charts.

My dearest and most special friend is called Helen
It has such positive and lovely associations for me I could only ever love it.

I’m a Helen. I love my name to be honest. I’m late forties and have sons (no daughters) but if I’d had a girl I think Helen would have been her middle name. A lot of people have told me they think my name is lovely and I’m very happy with this name. I think Helen of Troy was an infamous Helen but at least her name went down in history as quite a beauty! No problems with this name: it translates into French, Spanish and Italian easily. It’s actually a Greek name which means “light”.

@Heh1991
I'm afraid my mum does know how much I dislike my name.
Bit of a back story - I was adopted as a 5 week old baby and Helen was the name my birth mother had given me. My adoptive parents couldn't agree what to change it to so in my mum's words "we didn't bother, but I've never really liked it!!!"
I was a real tomboy (and a big famous five fan) and longed to be called a name that could be a boys name when shortened!!!

@fudgesmummy Len, surely?!

I never realised Helen was a popular 1970s name. I was born in the early 60s and knew a Helen who's a year older than me. It's a lovely name. Jane Eyre's friend at Lowood was Helen Burns. Helens Mirren, Keller, Hayes also come to mind.

Another Helen Louise here! I really dislike my name I think it's plain and boring. Sorry OP!

You can see its popularity through the 20th century here. Heavily dominant from approx 1960 to 1980.

I really dislike it.its old fashioned but not in a good way.

I'm a helen, I've always hated it. She sounds like a bit of a prig doesnt she?

I don't like it. I don't particularly like the 'hel' sound at the beginning and have known a few 40-50 yr old women who I didn't really get on with.

Helen is my middle name, it is also one of my mum's names and her mum was Helene (Norwegian spelling/pronunciation). I think it's ok - a bit boring though so when I had DD and we kind of wanted to keep the Helen going, we went for Helena instead as thought that was prettier, and I love it. Just a bit annoying that people mispronounce it a lot!

Nope, really dont like it. My mum is in her early/mid fifties and has about 4 friends called Helen so it sounds really dated to me.

@NotAnotherHelen
😂

@ronconcoke
How on earth can people mispronounce Helena?

As a Greek I love it and happy to see our names used outside Greece.

Very dated and not in a cool way. Agree with a pp - it just screams 40-year old woman.

There’s nothing wrong with it - classic, easy to spell/say, timeless. It’s just.....dull and always has been.

I like it, but then I love classic and timeless girls names. I don't like ambiguous spelling names.

@fudgesmummy we say Helen-a, which I thought everyone would say. Lots of people think it’s pronounced Helayna (with stress on the second syllable). I’ve even heard Heleena. Aargh!

The British island Saint Helena is pronounced as Heleena - həˈliːnə - so it has to be expected that some will pronounce it that way.

I don't like it , sorry