Elanelda
Nina (a friend of mine) has been researching her family tree and a name that she came across from way back (1700's I think it was) of an ancestor of hers was Elanelda (there was no record of her maiden name). She was Scandinavian woman (Nina can't find from where exactly she came from) who married an English man named Joseph Stalles. I was wondering if anyone knows what this name means and if it is in fact an old Scandinavian name or something else. Thanx...

This message was edited 11/16/2004, 5:50 PM

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Scandinavian names ending in 'elda', 'ilda', 'ild', 'hild' etc usually contain the Old Norse element hildr meaning "battle". I haven't been able to find a satisfactory explanation for the 'elan' part though - elan is a rare English word meaning "vigour", which is from a Latin root, but I doubt that's relevant!Elanelda could *possibly* be a combination of a name containing hildr and the Scandinavian cognate of Helen, Elin. However, I'm not happy with that :-DThat's my contribution all done - maybe one of our Scandinavian posters can shed a little more light!
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I live in Scandinavia and I've never heard this name (but it's beautiful). We have Helena, Helen, Elin, Ellen and Ellinor....Elanelda could be some old combination of Elin and Hilda.
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Thankyou Caprice (and Chrisell too!). :)
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