Apolena

Girl Names
1

Looking for general thoughts on this name (no children on the horizon).

Apolena is the Slovak variant of [name]Apollonia[/name]. I’ve loved [name]Apollonia[/name] for quite sometime, but I usually get very polarizing results. I believe this is due in part to strong associations that some have with the name (Purple [name]Rain[/name], [name]Apollonia[/name] 6, The Godfather). So, like a good name nerd, I went hunting for variations and found [name]Apolline[/name] (which has strong [name]Harry[/name] [name]Potter[/name] associations) and Apolena. I have some Slovak in my background in addition to Italian and would like to name future children names will pleasing to both side of my family.

  1. [name]General[/name] reactions. [name]Even[/name] blunt ones. (I have some ideas and am curious if others seem what I see as a potential teasing issue or if I’m oversensitive)
  2. [name]How[/name] would you say it?
  3. What nicknames would you use? (I was think either [name]Polly[/name] or [name]Lena[/name])
  4. What middle name would use? (mainly why I’m on the fence about it, I don’t think any of my other favorites sound good with it)

Thank you!

2
  1. I like the sound and [name]Apolline[/name] is a really pretty name. I’m not that keen on the Apolena spelling though. To me there’s something not right with it aesthetically.
  2. This is the part that gets me. With this spelling, I’m tempted to say ah-pol-AY-nuh when I want to say ah-pol-EEN-uh.
  3. [name]Love[/name] [name]Polly[/name] :slight_smile: [name]Apple[/name]? [name]Pol[/name]? [name]Ollie[/name]?
  4. Hmmm… anything containing the ‘een’ sound or ending in ‘a’ is out. Apolena [name]Eurydice[/name] would work but I think there’d be some pronunciation issues.
3
  1. Apolena. I love it. It has four of my five favorite name letters in it (weird, I know, sorry). It’s got a lovely sound. It’s a pretty name without being too flowery for my tastes, aka, it’s an A+ for me.
  2. My first instinct is ah-po-[name]LAY[/name]-nuh, but I can just as easily see ah-po-[name]LEE[/name]-nuh. I like both quite a lot.
  3. [name]Polly[/name], just gotta be honest, not a fan, but [name]Lena[/name] is very nice, I think
  4. Choosing a good middle name I think depends a lot on how it flows with the last name, so it’s hard to say. I think I would go for names that don’t share the same long vowel sound that you choose for pronunciation. So for example, [name]Catherine[/name] would be fine with either. But if you go ah-po-[name]LAY[/name]-nuh, [name]Jane[/name] would be kind of icky, and if you go ah-po-[name]LEE[/name]-nuh, names with the ‘ee’ sound like [name]Christine[/name] would be kind of meh. Other than that, my apologies, I have no suggestions!
4

  1. I had been looking for more on this name, and this seems to be one of the only places I’ve found something on it. I absolutely love it. It was my great grandmother’s name, but hers was spelled Apolina. Pronounced the same as Apolena. I was always told it was a Czech name (where my great grandmother was born).

  2. I would say it ah-po-lee-na. Which is basically like [name_f]Polina[/name_f] or a variant on the American name [name_f]Paulina[/name_f].

  3. [name_u]Love[/name_u] the name [name_f]Lena[/name_f]. I can see where some people may not say it with the stress on lee-na and may say it more like ley-na. I also think even just [name_f]Ena[/name_f] could be cute for a nickname.

  4. What are some of your other favorites? I know my great grandmothers middle name was [name_f]Agnes[/name_f], so it was Apolina [name_f]Agnes[/name_f] Jelinek which I love, but can sound clunky almost to say. The last name can change it a lot. I seem to like with other a names, but that can be a lot of the same letter sometimes. [name_f]Alice[/name_f] sounds nice with it and for some reason I like [name_f]Frances[/name_f] with it, but I tend to like older sounding names.