Helena or Cecilia?

[Shasha17]

Still on the quest for the perfect biblical or saint's name?

What do you think of
Helena (nn Nell) and Cecilia (nn Cece)?

Cecilia. It's nicer to me and doesn't have the pronunciation ambiguity that Helena does.

Cecilia for me as well. Helena can be pronounced Helen-a, Hel-ay-na or Hel-ee-na, and it can be a pain to constantly hear your name pronounced wrongly/have to correct people.

Cecilia - definitely. It's a great name.

Helena. Beautiful.

Either one is lovely !

Both lovely..
but as a nn I prefer Nell to cece which is quite wet.. just cee is nice though.

Cecilia, really don't like Helena and couldn't face her ending up being called Helen.

Cecilia sounds so prissy to me, though I do like Cece. If you're a culturally minded family, she might enjoy seeking out all the many, many portraits of St Cecilia that there are.

MUCH prefer Helena though, even with the multiple pronunciations.

Both are lovely but I think I'd go with Cecilia. Love Cece.
I do like Helena but yes, pronunciation could be a bit of a pain.

I have a Helena so obviously biased! No problems with pronunciation. Classic name and never been shorten to Helen.

I prefer Helena. It's lovely and I love the nn Nell.

However, Cecily is one of my favourite girl names, so I would choose that over Helena I think. I don't love the nn cece though and I find Cecilia a bit matronly (sorry).

Both great names!

Cecilia perhaps over Helena but it’s a close contest.

I love both names and, actually, I think the nicknames are rather bland and mar the beautiful names. Especially Nell. I wouldn't let pronunciation difficulties put you off Helena. The correction of people will become second nature. People will probably misspell Cecilia as Cecelia so that'd be correction in another form. Again, no huge deal. Can you wait and see if one "feels right" when she is born?

Cecelia. I love the nickname Cece!

I have a 2 month old Cecilia !
Both names are lovely though, I like Lena as a nn for Helena as well.

I like both equally.

Cecilia

Cecilia is awful. Hard to say, hissing sound, too many syllables.
Helena is nice. Helen even more so.

Cecilia/cecelia (latter better i think)
Helena can be pronounced 3 different ways as pp said. I really wouldn’t want that hassle.

I prefer Helena

I prefer Helen and Celia

both of them are good proper names.
such a relief from all those threads about calling them tiddlewinks or twinkletoes, or blossom, like a cart horse.
anyway, i personally do not like nell, sounds comic, or below-stairs;
nelly the elephant packed her trunk and said goodbye to the circus...

Helena for me.

I know the brattiest Cecilia and it has put me right off! But it is actually a good name.

I think Nell definitely has the edge over Cece - much classier.

I adore both (biased )

Helena is classy. Cecilia is a bit to fussy for me.