Name of the Day: Eleanor

I'm hoping to make this a regular, though certainly not daily, feature. I'm mulling over title options but "Name of the Day" is the working title.

Today's name is Eleanor. An easy pick for obvious reasons. Its a good name for discussion as its origins are disputed. Hotly. You won't believe that if you're not "one of us" but its true. Here are the points on which most experts agree:

1. The name Eleanor started life as the name Aliénor or Alienor.
   

You'll notice that there are not a lot of points of agreement.

There are opposing schools of thought as to the origin of the name Alienor which was born most famously by Eleanor of Aquitaine who lived during the 12th century. So, what are these schools? They are:

1. Alienor is a Provençal version of Helen/Helena.
2. Alienor is a Occitan (langue d'oc) form of the Germanic name, Aldenor.
3. Alienor is an Occitan invention created by Eleanor's parents.
4. Some combination of (2) and (3)
   

So, is Eleanor is a Provençal form of the name Helène which is the French form of the Greek name Helen. The argument is that all of these names share the "ele" element which is Greek for "light". The mythical Helen and Helena, the mother of Constantine, would have been well known historical figures in medieval Europe. Linguists argue that this is an unlikely origin because of the significant changes that Helena would have to make to become Aliénor. First, losing the 'h'. It is known, however, that the Romance languages such as Occitan, the language of Aquitaine, often silence the aspirate 'h'. And vowel shifts from a to e or back are not uncommon in the time before standardized spelling had any importance. But, there is no similar pattern of name development to mirror that of Helena to Aliénor. Furthermore, there is no documentation of anyone referred to as Helena/Aliénor in an age when different spellings of the same person's name would have been common and expected and recorded.

The first known usage of Alienor predates Eleanor of Aquitaine by 100 years. This early Alienor had a granddaughter who is listed in documents as Alienor, Aenor and Adenor which has led to the assertion that Alienor has a Germanic origin. How? Well, if one observes the transformation of the German name Adalhaid to Aaliz in France it seems plausible. Here's the pattern(I omit some steps):

• The Germanic name Adalhaid becomes Adaliz becomes Aaliz.

• The Germanic name Aldenor becomes Adenor become Aenor -OR-

• The Germanic name Aldenor become Alenor/Alienor.
  

In all cases one observes the loss of the intervocalic /d/ which is a known phenomenon in Occitan (langue d'oc), the language of Aquitaine, and related languages (Portuguese and Catalan).

Still others assert that Aliénor's name was distinctly Occitan and peculiar to her. It further states that she was obviously named for her mother, Aenor, as "alia Aenor" would have meant "the other Aenor" in Occitan. Notice also that Aliénor contains the word "alien" meaning "other" which is supposed to further support this theory. This camp is further split into those who believe her given name to be Aliénor and those who believe it to have been simply Aenor with the name Aliénor developing as a result of the child being constantly referred to as "the other Aenor". This camp sometimes admits that the meaning and origin of Aenor are unknown to them. It also ignores or isn't aware of or discounts the previous documented use of Alienor.

My own feeling is that Eleanor has no connection to the name Helen but is often cited as such because of its similarity to legitimate forms of Helen such as Elena and Ellen. Frankly, I dismiss the connection outright as sloppy scholarship.

There is very little documented use of Alienor, and to my knowledge, no use of the name Eleanor prior to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Since her time, the name Eleanor has seen consistent usage with peaks and valleys of popularity. It is currently ranked 277th on the 2006 Social Security Administration's list of most popular names for babies. It is ranked 42nd in England and Wales.

Interesting tidbit: Eleanor's grandmother, Aenor's mother, had the very saucy name of Dangereuse and managed to live up to her name.