Question about Nellie's name

[StarTrekCaptain]

I watched this movie the other day and in it one of the characters mentioned the the name "Nell" is "the affectionate term for Eleanor".

So that made me wonder if being called Nell was the same as being called Nellie.
And is Nellie's full name Eleanor?

(Maybe her name is only Nellie, but to me that always seemed like it would be more of a nickname or something.)

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ November 07, 2004 11:46 AM: Message edited by: StarTrekCaptain ]</font>

[StarTrekCaptain]

I don't think it is. I mean, I guess it could be, but I just always assumed it was a nickname because to me it sounds like one. So when I heard in a movie that Nell was short for Elinore, I thought, maybe thats it! I used to not like the name but one of my neighbors named her daughter Eleanor and since then I've started to think it's a pretty cute name, and very classic.

[Kathy Henning]

My grandmother was called Nellie. Her given name was Helen. She was a first generation Irish Catholic living in New York. She was born in 1890. I did not know that Grandma was called Nellie until I named our dog Nellie and Mom wanted to know why I named her after Grandma.I was 53 years old at this time. Nellie was a Irish Catholic child and would not have been baptized just Nellie. She would have either had another name or a different first name that was a Saint's name.

[Felicityexpert]

I don't think hteres a saint named Jenny either. I'm not saying that Nellie can't be a nickname, but I think Nellie is Nellie's full name.

[OSusannah]

There are so many saints, you can use almost any name. From www.catholic.org/saints:
St. Joanna
d.
Feastday May 24
Jennifer is a derivative of Joanna whose feast day is May 24th. Joanna was the wife of Chuza, steward of King Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. She was one of the women who helped provide for Jesus and the Apostles and was one of the three women who discovered the empty tomb of Jesus on the first Easter morning.

[Pat B]

Jenny is also derrived from several names beginning with Gw.There are several St Gwens also . They date from the 5 th and 6 th century . One of them was also the mother of a Saint. One of them was murdered by the Saxons. One is from Brittany . The others from Wales. Little is known about them.
St Brigid founded a community of nuns in Ireland
at about th same time as St Patrick. She is also known for her work with the poor.
There are quite a few St Helens ( or Helenas) . The most well known is the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine.

[StarTrekCaptain]

Okay I bet that the girls have different names based on saints.
BUt at the same time...
Originally I was thinking that those were not the girls real names because they just SOUNDED like nicknames to me. But maybe they ARE full names. After all I just rememberred my great-grandmother's name was Mattie, and that sounds like it would be short for Matilda or something, but it wasn't. Her full, legal name was simply Mattie. (She was born maybe like ten years before Nellie wouldve been born, but she was German, not Irish).
So I guess it doesn't have to be that they are nicknames just cause they sound like it. Some poeple just have names that osund like nicknames!

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ November 07, 2004 11:29 PM: Message edited by: StarTrekCaptain ]</font>

[Pat B]

Nellie is probably a nickname and not her legal name. There is no Saint called Nellie and an Irish girl of that era would have been given a Saints name. Eileen and Elinor are derived from Helena or Helen and there is a saint by that name.

[Felicityexpert]

Huh? Nellie is a full name!

[samfinasara]

I was practically obsessed by this question for a while. I found several Irish name sites on the internet, (including www.namenerds.com/irish, which I found most helpful) looked for all the names that were forms of Eileen or Elinor (which are forms of Helen) and finally picked Eibhleann (pronounced AVE-len). I don't remember if it is a saint's name or not -- I was getting tired of the hunt by then, besides the sources would contradict each other and I couldn't be sure which had the correct list of saints' names. But my Nellie's full name will be Eibhleann Mair?ad O'Malley. I just picked any Gaelic name I liked for her middle name. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Aim?e

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ November 08, 2004 08:15 AM: Message edited by: Samantha's Seamstress ]</font>