My sister's name! I remember when she was in the womb my mom debating between Heh-LAYN-ah and He-LEEN-ah pronunciations and finally she chose He-LEEN-ah because she liked
Lena as a nick name better than
Lane or Lanie.
I think of
Helena as being He-LEEN-ah because of my sister. I have also met a
Heleena which I didn't find offensive really. I can understand why they chose that spelling because my sister is CONSTANTLY correcting people when they say Helen-ah and He-LAYN-ah. When I asked her which pronunciation she gets most, she says it's pretty even. So no matter what you go with, it isn't likely that people will call her one thing or another "most of the time".