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I love Helen and would have gladly used it if enough daughters had happened. I've always enjoyed it, but I used to think of it as very popular in the 19th century and therefore a great-grandma name at best. Then I found new information from the family tree, and two relatives, both born in the 19th century and both called Nellie, turned out to have actually been registered as Nellie and not Helen, Ellen or Eleanor as I'd suspected. That surprised me greatly.

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Helena, here in South Africa, is pronounced heLEEuhna, which puts me right off it. But surprising numbers of elderly English speakers were named Helene, pronounced heLEEN! Helen comes as welcome relief from both of them.