Variant of Eleanor, also a golden star-shaped flower in Tolkien's legendarium. Meaning 'sun-star'.
Elanor is a name with two intertwined histories: one ancient and one literary. In sound and structure it recalls Eleanor, a name that entered medieval Europe through the Old French Alienor, probably linked to the Provençal name Aliénor and shaped by noble courts of Aquitaine and England. R.
Tolkien, who used it in The Lord of the Rings as the name of a golden star-shaped flower in the elvish landscapes of Lothlórien. Tolkien drew on his invented Sindarin language, where the word carries associations of sun and stars, giving Elanor an unusually luminous poetic texture. That literary connection gives Elanor a rare dual character: it feels rooted in the long European tradition of Eleanor while also belonging to the world of modern fantasy.
Tolkien further deepened the name’s place in cultural memory by giving it to Samwise Gamgee’s daughter, Elanor the Fair, a symbol of renewal after hardship. Because of that, the name often suggests beauty, gentleness, and a kind of quiet resilience. Over time, Elanor has remained less common than Eleanor, which helps preserve its distinctive aura.
Parents drawn to it often like its soft medieval cadence but also its bookish, imaginative associations. It has evolved from being seen primarily as a Tolkien reference into something broader: a graceful alternative spelling and form with echoes of old romance, mythic nature imagery, and literary tenderness.