Comments for the name Elena

In Russian this name would be pronounced YEH-lehn-ah.

In Spanish, this name would be pronounced ay-LAY-nah.

The Spanish pronunciation is not e-LAY-na. It is eh-LEH-na. Only in English is the name pronounced e-LAY-na, though where the long 'a' sound comes from really escapes me.

Actually, it IS pronounced ay-LAY-na in Spanish. "E" is pronounced "ay," not "eh" in Spanish, so that's where the "ay" sound comes from in the English pronunciation, as well. This is my (non-Spanish) niece's name, but is also a fairly common name in the area where I live for girls of Mexican heritage, and they do NOT pronounce it ay-LEH-na.

It is funny when non native speakers of Spanish try to teach us natives lessons on how to pronounce our language. I'm not a Mexican living in the US but a Spaniard living in Spain so I have a "slight" idea of how to speak Spanish.

In Spanish this name is NOT pronunced ay-Lay-nuh but eh-leh-nah. It really bugs me when Americans pronounced this name ay-Lay-nuh and INSIST that it's the correct pronunciation. If this name where to be pronounced ay-LAY-nuh in Spanish then it would be spelled Eileina, so please pronounce it the right way!

My name is Elena and my parents have always said it as E-Lee-Na. And to tell you the truth. I have never liked it.

A girl at my school's name is Elena and she pronounces it El-eh-na.

This is my name and everyone always pronounces it UH-lay-na, which I hate. Personally I think it should be pronounced the way it was meant, Eh-leh-na.

You can pronounce it however you want, but the real pronunciation is e-leh-na. I mean c'mon, please, people, get it right.

The Italian pronunciation is not e-LE-nah, but E-le-nah! [noted -ed]

I'm not sure why anyone would look at the name Elena and pronounce the le as "lay". I've always heard it as "leh", and that makes sense to me. When I named one of my daughters my own variation of this name, I wanted it pronounced "ee-LAY-nah", so I spelled it Elaina.

Well, my name is Elena and I am Serbian so I was named after my great grandmother, Jelena (Ye-LEH-na) I pronounce my name E-LAY-nuh or just uh-LAY-nuh I find this the prettiest way to pronounce the name. I am frequently called Eh-LEH-na which I hate because personally I think it sounds kind of ugly.

In Croatia this name can be pronounced in 2 ways: el-LENN-ah or EL-en-ah. I love both of them.

I like this name a lot. I pronounce it El-Lain-Uh.

My name is Elena and I pronounce it as ah-LEEN-nah (Aleena). I hate when people mispronounce it as Ah-lay-na or Eh-ley-na (Spanish). I'm African American and my ancestors are Native American descent as well as African American. My name is beautiful and it means shinning light, light of God and Bright.