leanorFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFor other uses, seeEleanor (disambiguation).Eleanor

Pronunciation/ln/,US/lnr/

Genderfeminine

Language(s)Old French / Occitan

Origin

Word/nameAlinor

Region of originFrance(Aquitaine?)

Other names

Variant form(s)Elinor, Elenor, Eleanore, Eleonora, etc.

Look upEleanorin Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Eleanor(usually pronounced/lnr/in North America but/ln/elsewhere, variantsElinor,Ellinor,Elenor,Eleanore,Eleanour,Eleonor(a)among others; short formLeonorand variants) is a femininegiven name. It was the name of a number of women of the high nobility in Western Europe during theHigh Middle Ages, originally from aProvenalnameAlinor.In modern times, the name was popularly given in the United States in the 1910s to 1920s, peaking at rank 25 in 1920. It declined below rank 600 by the 1970s, but has again risen above rank 150 in the early 2010s.In English 'Eleanor' means shining bright.CommonhypocorismsincludeElla, Ellie, Elly(etc.),Leonor,Leonora,Leonore, Leanora, Lenora, (etc.)Nell, Nella, Nellie, Nelly, Nelda, Nelle, (etc.),Nora(h), Noreen, Norene, Nonie(etc.)Contents[hide] 1Origin 2Notable people 3Fictional characters 4See also 5ReferencesOrigin[edit]Further information:AenorThe name derives from theProvenalnameAlinorwhich becameElanororEleonorein the northernLangue d'oland from there also toEnglish.[1]The name probably originates as that ofEleanor of Aquitaine(1120s-1204). She was the daughter ofAnor de Chtellerault, and it has been suggested that having been baptizedAenorafter her mother, she was calledalia Aenor, i.e. "the other Aenor" in childhood and would have kept that name in adult life; the nameAnoritself appears to be a Latinization of a Germanic name of uncertain form.[2]While Eleanor of Aquitaine, probably the most powerful woman in Europe during her time, was certainly the reason for the name's later popularity, the name's origin with her, and the explanation ofalia Aenoris uncertain; there are records of possible bearers of the nameAlienorearlier in the 12th, or even in the 11th or 10th centuries,[3]but the records of these women post-date Eleanor of Aquitaine, at a time whenAlienorhad come to be seen as an equivalent variant of the nameAenor(so that presumably, these women during their own lifetime used the given nameAenor):1. Alienor, the wife (m. 935) of Aimery IIviscount of Thouarsand mother of Herbert I (b. 960).[citation needed]2. Alienor, the grandmother of Anor of Chtellerault, and thus Eleanor of Aquitaine's own great-grandmother, born c. 1050 as a daughter ofAimery IV of Thouars. Her name is also recorded asAinora, and may have been corrupted toAlienorin genealogies only after the 12th century.[citation needed]3. Eleanor of Normandy(11th century), aunt of William the Conqueror, was so named by the 17th-century genealogistPierre de Guibours, but de Guibours' sources for this remain unknown and the application of this name may be a mistake of his.[4]4. Eleanor of Champagne (11021147), recorded[yearneeded]as the name of the first wife ofRalph I, Count of Vermandoiswho was displaced by Eleanor of Aquitaine's sisterPetronilla of Aquitaine, leading to a two years' war (114244) in Champagne.