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Ellen

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: ellen and ellen-

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

Medieval English variant of Helen, from Ancient Greek Ἑλένη (Helénē); also used as a variant of Eleanor or a feminine counterpart to Elliot.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Ellen (countable and uncountable, plural Ellens)

  1. A female given name from Ancient Greek.
    • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
      And how doth my cousin, your bedfellow? and your fairest daughter and mine, my god-daughter Ellen?
    • 1928, Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train:
      "Is her name Ellen or Helen, Miss Viner? I thought - "
      Miss Viner closed her eyes.
      "I can sound my h's, dear, as well as anyone, but Helen is not a suitable name for a servant. I don't know what the mothers in the lower classes are coming to nowadays."
    • 2007 September 10, “Review: Jones, Coens, Penn highlight Toronto”, in CNN‎:
      Ellen Page gives a star-making performance as a 16-year-old live wire who decides to go through with her pregnancy and seeks acceptably well-adjusted, wealthy, punk-rock loving parents for the unborn baby.
  2. A river in Cumberland district, Cumbria, England, that flows into the Solway Firth at Maryport.

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Hawaiian: ʻElena

Translations

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Danish

Proper noun

Ellen

  1. a female given name, variant of Helene

References

  • Danskernes Navne, based on CPR data: 49 325 females with the given name Ellen have been registered in Denmark between about 1890 (=the population alive in 1967) and January 2005, with the frequency peak in the 1910s. Accessed on 19 May 2011.

Estonian

Proper noun

Ellen

  1. a female given name, variant of Helena

Finnish

Etymology

From English Ellen and Danish Ellen.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈelːen/, [ˈe̞lːe̞n]
  • Rhymes: -elːen
  • Syllabification(key): El‧len
  • Hyphenation(key): El‧len

Proper noun

Ellen

  1. a female given name
    • 1985, Simo Hämäläinen, Jätkät, Weilin + Göös, →ISBN, page 158:
      ―Minä olen Ellen.
      ―Nätti nimi. Ruohtalainen.
      ―Eikä ole.
      ―Ei sitten, ellet tykkää.
      ―I'm Ellen.
      ―Nice name. Swedish one.
      ―No it isn't.
      ―Okay, if you don't like that.

Declension

More information nominative, genitive ...
More information first-person singular possessor, singular ...

Statistics

  • Ellen is the 135th most common female given name in Finland, belonging to 5,338 female individuals (and as a middle name to 7,865 more), according to August 2025 data from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency of Finland.
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German

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Noun

Ellen

  1. plural of Elle

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English Ellen and Danish Ellen.

Proper noun

Ellen

  1. a female given name

Norwegian

Etymology

Danish and Norwegian variant of Helene. Later also borrowed from English Ellen.

Proper noun

Ellen

  1. a female given name

References

  • Kristoffer Kruken - Ola Stemshaug: Norsk personnamnleksikon, Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo 1995, →ISBN
  • Statistisk sentralbyrå, Namnestatistikk: 13 663 females with the given name Ellen living in Norway on January 1st 2011, with the frequency peak in the 1950s. Accessed on April 18th, 2011.
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Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English Ellen and Danish Ellen.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Ellen c (genitive Ellens)

  1. a female given name

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