Eleanor is a feminine
given name. It is also sometimes spelt
Elinor or
Eleanore. The first known bearer of the name was
Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was named after her mother, Ænor de Châtellerault, and called
"Aliénor", (from
"Alia-Aenor"), which means
"other-Aenor" in the
langue d'oc (
Occitan language), it became
"Eléanor" in the northern
Langue d'oïl and in English. Therefore the meaning of the name is sometimes given as "The Other". The meaning of the name
Aenor however is still unknown. In English the name is sometimes connected to
Elena,
Ellen or
Elaine (->
Helen,
Helene) as well. It could be connected to the Greek
eleos meaning "compassion" as well. In medieval Arabic the similar sounding name "Allahu Nuri" (Allahu Nooree) means "God is my light". The modern version is Nurullah (Noorullah) which means "light of God". The similar Hebrew name Eliora is a feminine form of Elior, meaning "my God is light". More recently
J. R. R. Tolkien created an alternative meaning for this name using his made up
Elvish language Quenya. In his novel
The Lord of the Rings Elanor means "sun-star" (
el: star, and
anor: sun), and is the name of a golden five-pointed flower that grows in the woods of
Lothlórien and the given name of a golden-haired child. There are also many variants in other languages.