Do you like the name Elena?

[PiperClarke]

Hubby and I are stuck between Elena and Zara and we just can’t pick!!

El-een-ah or el-ayn-ah?

Definitely Elena

El-a-nah - like on the vampire diaries

Or el-enn-a?

I love it but the pronunciation issues put me off.

I think Zara is much nicer.

Elena gets pronounced in all manner of different ways and that would put me off (plus I'm just not keen on the sound of it).

Elena

Probably Elena, I like Helena better though. Pronunciation clearer.

Elena is much nicer though prefer Elenor or Helena
Dislike Zara because of the High street fashion brand

The Elenas I know (3) and of Italian heritage pronounce it as El-en-ah. It's lovely.

Love it but actually prefer saying "El-ay-nah" for this spelling. Probably after watching Elena of Avalor!

So assume the same pronunciation as you OP

I like the look of Elena and like it pronounced like El-len-a and not El- ay- na but I think you’ll have pronunciation issues.

Love it. Know a lovely Elena who pronounces it "El-ay-na"

Helena really isn't clearer

Helen-Ah
Hell-Layna
Hell-eena

Are all pronunciations I've heard for this one name.

I love Elena, but only pronounced like Elaine-Ah

Elena - nice name, can be nn Lena and quite international - Italian, greek, slavic.
Zara is a clothing brand

Elena. I was a massive the vampire diaries fan though!

A lady at work gets all of these pronunciations of Helena. She is in another office and I only email with her, so still don't know which one she goes by!

For the op, El-ayn-er is what i would assume from the spelling. If you want more of an El-an-er I would spell it Elanor.

We have friends whose daughter is spelt Elena but pronounced Eleanor. I'm not sure as I think that no one gets it.

Elena pronounced as Ell-enn-a is lovely.

Elena pronounced as Eleanor is less so. It’s just a miss spelling.

I don’t like Elena because you’d constantly be telling people how to pronounce it, or correcting them.

I would have assumed that it was pronounced e-lay-na.

Zara would definitely be my pick out of the two.

Not very helpful but I love both .

El-a-nah - like on the vampire diaries

I've never watched the film/show so have no idea how its pronounced! What you've written looks similar to a friend of mine Alana, but with an E at the beginning. Also looks similar to the Greek name Eleni.

I prefer Zara. (Actually, I prefer Lara over either of the above, but that wasn't an option).

Not keen on Elena. Alina is a lovely name.

ELLen-uh is the way that sounds best to me.
But Elena is pretty any which way.
I choose Elena.
Zara is just as lovely.
It's a tough choice and you can't go wrong.