The name Eluned is a girl's name of Welsh origin meaning "idol, image". Eluned and is often added to lists like Unique Baby Names: Unusual and Rare and discussed in our forums with posts like "A brother or sister for little Jack or Olivia".
From the experts:
Exotic and mysterious, Eluned's beauty and intelligence were legendary in Welsh legend; she was the handmaiden of the Lady of the Fountain in a Welsh Arthurian romance, who had a magic ring that made the wearer invisible. Pronunciation is usually similar in emphasis to Eleanor, but with ned instead of nor at the end. However, it's sometimes also pronounced el-LIN-ed or even shortened to Luned, the sounce of Lynette, in Tennyson's Gareth and Lynette.
Eluned in Blog Posts
Comments
abertawe Says:
amberdaydream Says:
I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm really sorry if that's how it came across, I really don't want to be a nuisance. I think there is confusion regionally; in certain parts of Wales, "u" is a normally close front rounded vowel, which can produce a sound closer to oo than i/ee.
abertawe Says:
I am Welsh born and have a friend of this name. Anyway I did listen to the recording you're referring to. He has a very heavy lilting accent and as you say, it does make interpreting emphasis muddy. My primary exposure to Welsh has been Northern. I have no clue who would say "EL-oo-net" and to my knowledge this is not valid, the u is not meant to be said as 'oo', that's a "w" sound. Anyway maybe we agree to disagree on this one :)
amberdaydream Says:
I live on the Welsh border. Emphasis is difficult in Welsh because of the changing pitch in the accent. There's a recorded pronunciation on the BBC website under the Living In Wales section, for some reason comments with links aren't working but hopefully you can find it.
amberdaydream Says:
I live on the Welsh border. You can hear it pronounced here for yourself:
bbc.co.uk/wales/livinginwal...
abertawe Says:
I don't get why "el-LOOND" is listed as a pronunciation. Of the Welsh people I've met it's either el-EE-ned or el-IH-ned depending on if they're from the South or North.
abertawe Says:
It's the penultimate syllable that is emphasized in Welsh... it should be el-EE-ned or el-IH-ned
EW314 Says:
Lovely! Probably the most striking and interesting of the El- cohort.
Hailey Says:
I feel like this was a name of one of the priestesses in The Mists of Avalon, but I think her name was "Eiluned."
Zelliew Says:
Too close to lunatic
lesliemarion Says:
Love this name!
amberdaydream Says:
In Wales it's pronounced kind of like EL-oo-net or EL-ih-net. Similar to Russian, a D at the end of a word normally devoices to a T sound. It is very pretty.
Catastroffy Says:
This is a very interesting and pretty name.
Candler Says:
I've never even heard of this name before! So beautiful and magical-sounding.
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No worries, I honestly didn't know that. :)