Elena

BananaLettuce

Elena is a name my H picked to honor his Aunt Ellen. At first I was on the fence because it was too Vampire Diaries to me, but now I kind of love it.

BUT I don't want to pronounce it Uh-lane-uh. I prefer Eh-LEN-uh or Ellen-uh.

Is this one of those names that will never be pronounce like I want? I have a name that is mispronounced all. the. time. and it does get old.

Full name would be Elena Catherine. Possible double name Elena Kate.

Helenahhandbasket

Love the Ellen-uh prononciation, but I don't know how innate it is.  I have nixed names due to pronunciation issues personally, but to some I know it's NBD.

I would guess most people would say Ee-lay-nuh.

BananaLettuce

I like Elin and Elina (ee-leen-ah) but the H does not.

XOdanXO

I love the name Elena! And I pronounce it El-ay-na. Elena Catherine is lovely together, but I will point out (only because you were worried about The Vampire Diaries link) that Catherine is Elenas doppelganger in the show. None the less Elena Catherine is a lovely name so if you're not bothered about the link, by all means you should go for it!☺❤

DaisyZH

XOdanXO said:

I love the name Elena! And I pronounce it El-ay-na. Elena Catherine is lovely together, but I will point out (only because you were worried about The Vampire Diaries link) that Catherine is Elenas doppelganger in the show. None the less Elena Catherine is a lovely name so if you're not bothered about the link, by all means you should go for it!☺❤

Good point, I love Vampire Diaries so I would notice as well BUT the vast majority of people will not and certainly none of her peers.  I really like it and I think a quick correction would be enough to get most people to remember the correct pronounciation.

XOdanXO

DaisyZH said:

XOdanXO said:

I love the name Elena! And I pronounce it El-ay-na. Elena Catherine is lovely together, but I will point out (only because you were worried about The Vampire Diaries link) that Catherine is Elenas doppelganger in the show. None the less Elena Catherine is a lovely name so if you're not bothered about the link, by all means you should go for it!☺❤

Good point, I love Vampire Diaries so I would notice as well BUT the vast majority of people will not and certainly none of her peers.  I really like it and I think a quick correction would be enough to get most people to remember the correct pronounciation.

Very true, for some reason I didn't consider the fact that a good majority of people wouldn't watch it, therefore wouldn't make the connection. Silly me haha ☺❤

BananaLettuce

Joy2611 said:

I lurve Elena (ellen-uh).  I always thought its only pronunciation was uh-lay-nuh until I met one who was ellen-uh.  Now I know to ask.

I think this is like Lucia - several valid pronunciations and a quick clarification will do the trick.

Of course, I do worry about the trouble with it due to people I know named Alicia.  I've known several to get very prickly when asked for their pronunciation.  Don't do that.

Yeah. My name is mispronounced a lot here in the south. If it's the lady at Starbucks, I don't bother correcting them. If it's someone I work with, I will. I only get perturbed when I've corrected someone, and they still get it wrong. repeatedly.

*edited

DaisyZH

XOdanXO said:

XOdanXO said:

I love the name Elena! And I pronounce it El-ay-na. Elena Catherine is lovely together, but I will point out (only because you were worried about The Vampire Diaries link) that Catherine is Elenas doppelganger in the show. None the less Elena Catherine is a lovely name so if you're not bothered about the link, by all means you should go for it!☺❤

Good point, I love Vampire Diaries so I would notice as well BUT the vast majority of people will not and certainly none of her peers.  I really like it and I think a quick correction would be enough to get most people to remember the correct pronounciation.

Very true, for some reason I didn't consider the fact that a good majority of people wouldn't watch it, therefore wouldn't make the connection. Silly me haha ☺❤

It's good to know though - I actually love Elena, Catherine, Katerina and Nina (all doppelgängers plus the actress that plays them) so I am all about Vampire Diaries names . 

BananaLettuce

DaisyZH said:

XOdanXO said:

DaisyZH said:

XOdanXO said:

I love the name Elena! And I pronounce it El-ay-na. Elena Catherine is lovely together, but I will point out (only because you were worried about The Vampire Diaries link) that Catherine is Elenas doppelganger in the show. None the less Elena Catherine is a lovely name so if you're not bothered about the link, by all means you should go for it!☺❤

Good point, I love Vampire Diaries so I would notice as well BUT the vast majority of people will not and certainly none of her peers.  I really like it and I think a quick correction would be enough to get most people to remember the correct pronounciation.

Very true, for some reason I didn't consider the fact that a good majority of people wouldn't watch it, therefore wouldn't make the connection. Silly me haha ☺❤

It's good to know though - I actually love Elena, Catherine, Katerina and Nina (all doppelgängers plus the actress that plays them) so I am all about Vampire Diaries names . 

*************

She (the author) has great character names. I don't think there is a character name on that show that I don't like.

BananaLettuce

babyfanta said:

I love Elena. I would say El-LEN-uh.

If people say it wrong just correct them once nicely and that's it.

My friend is named Ana. (Ah-nuh)
she constantly gets called Anna (Ann-Uh)

She gets pretty annoyed after she corrects someone once and they still mess it up. But it's a really pretty name! I wouldn't not NOT name someone that on pronunciation problems alone. Especially if the real pronunciation is not too crazy out there.

This is similar to the issue with my name, except the vowel is short and everyone in the south wants to use long vowels, which is interesting, because I don't know any Elenas down here, just one Alaina. I bet her name would be pronounced Eh-leen-uh a lot (which I don't really mind as much because I love Elina, but it might bother my H).

XOdanXO

BananaLettuce said:

DaisyZH said:

XOdanXO said:

DaisyZH said:

XOdanXO said:

I love the name Elena! And I pronounce it El-ay-na. Elena Catherine is lovely together, but I will point out (only because you were worried about The Vampire Diaries link) that Catherine is Elenas doppelganger in the show. None the less Elena Catherine is a lovely name so if you're not bothered about the link, by all means you should go for it!☺❤

Good point, I love Vampire Diaries so I would notice as well BUT the vast majority of people will not and certainly none of her peers.  I really like it and I think a quick correction would be enough to get most people to remember the correct pronounciation.

Very true, for some reason I didn't consider the fact that a good majority of people wouldn't watch it, therefore wouldn't make the connection. Silly me haha ☺❤

It's good to know though - I actually love Elena, Catherine, Katerina and Nina (all doppelgängers plus the actress that plays them) so I am all about Vampire Diaries names . 

*************

She (the author) has great character names. I don't think there is a character name on that show that I don't like.

.....
I agree with both you ladies! Its a great book/TV series filled with some great names! I think its a great show to seek possible names from ☺❤

queenbone

Yes, it is one of those names with multiple pronunciations. My first instinct is Ah LAY nah.

ErinGoBragh77

My daughter is Elena (pronounced Eh-lay-nuh).  We've never had anyone pronounce it Ellen-uh, so I feel like peoples' default is with "lay" in the middle.  BUT, like others already mentioned, it wouldn't be a big deal to correct people.  Hopefully you'd only have to do it once and they'd get it from then on!

4N6s

I knew a Elena and no one pronounced it "correctly". She went by uh-lean-uh.
I like Ellen-uh, but haven't heard that before.
Everyone would call her uh-lane-uh

pipeTsquared

I automatically go for E-lay-na 

But that may be beacuse Eleanor here (the UK) often gets pronounced as Ellen-nuh (it is an accent thing you do here the -or said obviously)

brooklynesque

I've never heard this pronounced the way you want. She would have to correct people all the time. The Supreme Court justice pronounces it Uh-LAY-na, fwiw. She might be the most prominent non-fictional bearer of the name,

Renisra+2

I would've said more like "eh-lay-na", but I don't think it's impossible to get the ellen-uh pronunciation if that's what you want. It will likely be a pain or an annoyance, but I think you could get there, at least with those who are close to you anyway.

elvinnoe

I automatically pronounced it "Uh-lee-nah" in my head since I know two already, one spelled Alena and another Elina, both pronounced same though.

I love the pronunciation Ellen-uh and would keep it just for that. People will know once you tell them.

jburdet1

I would pronounce it eh-lane-nah.
I do think the Ellen-nuh pronunication is very pretty.
To me, this name is one to avoid since it has so many different pronunciations.