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Eleanor

{{Other uses}}

{{Infobox given name

| name = Eleanor

| image = EleanordeProvence.jpg

| caption = Queen Eleanor of Provence

| pronunciation = {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɛ|l|ə|n|ər|,_|-|n|ɔːr}}

| gender = Female

| language = French and English

| nickname = Nora, Ella, Ellie, Elle, El, Nell, Nellie, Nelly

| variant forms = Eleonore, Eleanora, Eleonora, Eléonore, Elanor, Elinor
(see Variants section)

| region = Southern France

| footnotes =

}}

Eleanor ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɛ|l|ə|n|ər|,_|-|n|ɔːr}}) is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name Aliénor. It was the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introduced to England by Eleanor of Aquitaine, who came to marry King Henry II. It was also borne by Eleanor of Provence, who became queen consort of England as the wife of King Henry III, and Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I.

The name was popular in the Anglosphere during the first half of the 20th century, but declined in use until the late 20th century and first decades of the 21st century. It has been a well-used name in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand during the 2020s. https://www.behindthename.com/name/eleanor Eleanor was the third most popular name for newborn girls born to white mothers in the U.S. state of Virginia in 2024, but was a less popular name for girls born to mothers from other groups. Eleanor was the ninth most popular name overall for newborn girls in Virginia in 2024.https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/blog/2025/05/02/virginia-department-of-health-and-office-of-vital-records-release-top-baby-names-for-2024-other-interesting-virginia-birth-data/

Eleanor Roosevelt, the longest-serving first lady of the U.S., was probably the most famous bearer of the name in contemporary history.

Spelling variants include Elanor, Eleonore, Elinor, Ellenor and others. A common variant is Eleonora/Eleanora. Common hypocorisms include Eleana, Elle, Ella, Ellie, Elly, Leonor, Leonora, Leonore, Nella, Nellie, Nelly, and Nora.

Origin

{{Further|Aenor}}

The name derives from the Provençal name Aliénor, which became Eléonore in Langue d'oïl, i.e., French, and from there Eleanor in English.{{cite book | last=Yonge | first=C.M. | title=History of Christian Names | publisher=Parker, Son, and Bourn | issue=v. 1 | year=1863 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iRMaAAAAIAAJ}}

The origin of the name is somewhat unclear; one of the earliest bearers appears to have been Eleanor of Aquitaine (1120s–1204). She was the daughter of Aénor de Châtellerault, and it has been suggested that having been baptized Aenor after her mother, she was called alia Aenor, i.e. "the other Aenor" or Aliénor in childhood and would have kept that name in adult life. Some sources say that the name Aénor itself may be a Latinization of an unknown Germanic name.[http://www.behindthename.com/name/eleanor behindthename.com]

Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most powerful woman in 12th century Europe, was certainly the reason for the name's later popularity. However, the name's origin with her, and the explanation of alia Aenor is uncertain; there are records of possible bearers of the name Alienor earlier in the 12th, or even in the 11th or 10th centuries,The suggestion of alia Aenor was considered "ridiculous" by Gilles Ménage in his Histoire De Sable (1683, [https://books.google.com/books?id=E6NFAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA70 p. 70]). but the records of these women post-date Eleanor of Aquitaine, at a time when Alienor had come to be seen as an equivalent variant of the name Aenor (so that presumably, these women during their own lifetime used the given name Aenor):

  1. Alienor, wife (b. 899) (married 935) of Aimery II, Viscount of Thouars, and mother of Herbert I (born 960).{{cite book | last=Martin | first=T. | title=Reassessing the Roles of Women as 'Makers' of Medieval Art and Architecture (2 Vol. Set) | publisher=Brill | series=European History and Culture E-Books Online, Collection 2012, ISBN 9789004223257 | issue=v. 1 | year=2012 | isbn=978-90-04-18555-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IpYz-JIpjR8C&pg=PA860 | page=860}}
  2. Aleanor de Thouars (1050–1088/93), grandmother of Aénor of Châtellerault, and thus Eleanor of Aquitaine's great-grandmother. Born c. 1060 as a daughter of Aimery IV of Thouars and Aurengarde de Mauleon. Her name is also cited in some documents as Adenor, Aenors and Aleanor/Alienor, and may have been corrupted to Alienor in genealogies only after the 12th century.{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}
  3. Eleanor of Normandy, aunt of William the Conqueror, was so named by the 17th-century genealogist Pierre de Guibours, but de Guibours' sources for this remain unknown.{{efn|The first known source giving her name as Eleanor is apparently Pierre de Guibours (died 1694). De Guibours claims to base this on the authority of William of Jumièges, but the information is not actually found there, suggesting that de Guibours drew from another source which has not yet been identified.See George Beech in Brown (ed.) Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1986 (1989), [https://books.google.com/books?id=9A7NuTBY8d4C&pg=PA8 p. 8 fn 29].}}
  4. Eleanor of Champagne (1102–1147), in 1125 became the first wife of Ralph I, Count of Vermandois, who was displaced by Eleanor of Aquitaine's sister Petronilla of Aquitaine, leading to war (1142–44) in Champagne.

Variants

  • Breton: Azenor
  • Catalan: Elionor
  • Danish: Ellinor, Leonora
  • Dutch, Polish, Latvian: Eleonora
  • English: Eleanor, Elinor
  • Estonian: Eleonoora, Ellinor
  • French: Eléonore, Éléonore, Léonore, Elléonore, Eléanor, Éléanor, Éléanore, Aliénor, Aénor
  • German: Eleonore
  • Greek: Ελεονώρα
  • Hungarian, Slovak: Eleonóra
  • Indonesian: Eleanor, Eleonora, Leonora
  • Irish: Eileanóra, Elienor{{cite book |last1=Hanks |first1=Patrick |last2=Coates |first2=Richard |last3=McClure |first3=Peter |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland |date=17 November 2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-252747-9 |page=828 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0AyDDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA828 |access-date=5 November 2022 |language=en}}
  • Italian: Eleonora, Leonora
  • Occitan: Alienor, Alienòr
  • Portuguese: Leonora, Leonor
  • Provençal: Lenoa, Leno
  • Spanish: Leonor
  • Swedish: Eleanora, Ellinor, Elleonore, Elna
  • Turkish: Elanur
  • Welsh: Elinor

Notable people

= People with the given name Eleanor =

== <span class="anchor" id="Queen"></span> Medieval ==

== Modern ==

= People with the given name Eleanour =

= People with the given name Elenore =

= People with the given name Eleonore =

= People with the given name Elinor =

= People with the given name Elinore =

= People with the given name Elleanor =

= People with the given name Eleonora =

= People with the given name Ellinor =

= People with the given name Ellinore =

Fictional characters

See also

Explanatory notes

{{Notelist}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • {{Wiktionary inline|Eleanor}}

{{Given name}}

Category:English feminine given names

Category:Feminine given names

Category:French feminine given names