Origin and meaning of the name Elimena

Elimena is a very rare name that has been used in a few different places. The web carries dubious non-referenced definitions listing it as Latin, French, Biblical or unknown in origin; but most search results on the name seem to be for people with a Spanish speaking background.

We came up with Elimena by combining the names Eleanor and Ximena (both of which Bianca loved but I couldn’t quite commit to). We later found limited references to Elimena (and Elemena) on the web, confirming it’s rare use as a name in the past.

Sceptical about the accuracy of the web sources above, I summarised the info and cold-emailed Dr Greg Fox who specialises in Palmyrene Aramaic, Classical Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Lithuanian & Pacific linguistics with the Ancient History Department at Macquarie University. He very generously and wisely responded as follows:

I think you will find that [Elimena] has no connection with words in Latin or Greek. Your idea of combining two words into one make it a word in its own right. I would not seek for further etymological light – what you have uncovered sounds fishy – but just rejoice in a name that is truly euphonious.

We’ve taken his advice, and would also like to offer our own interpretation of the name:

Name: Elimena
Gender: Feminine
Pronounced: el-le-mee-nah
Rarely used and without clear origin, yet familiar in sound, Elimena offers unlimited possibilities and the potential to be whomever you’d like to be.

Additional information from Trevor Evans (another expert): The two previously attested spellings [NW: Elimena & Elemena] (probably variants of the same name, since there are close links between the vowels ‘e’ and ‘i’) look Greek to me (the -mena ending is a characteristic type). If Latin played a role, I suspect it would have been as an intermediary. I’ve had a quick look in the standard classical Greek dictionary without turning up anything of interest. … It is a fact, though, that the original meanings of names can sometimes be very hard to recover.