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GIRLS’ NAMES
What They Mean-Famous People That Bore the Name-The Name in History, Literature, Etc.
By Henry W. Fischer
HELEN
[Welland Telegraph, 5 April 1912]
The girl named Helen must have a hard time living up to her name, which means radiantly beautiful.
The fact that there are so few perfect beauties in the world may account for it that many girls christened Helen are called by the less ambitious appellations of Nellie or Nell. The most famous of the Nells, Nell Gwynne, the gay enslaver of Charles II, was remarkable for beauty and a nimble mind, but even then the names of Helen and Eleanor seem to have been cinfounded. One of the early biographies of Nell calls her Eleanor and Nell’s testament is styled in official language “the last request of Mrs. Ellen Gwynn.”
With the signification of Helen as radiantly beautiful the emblem allotted to the name, ranunculus, ill tallies.
This is a flower one gathers in the meadows as plain buttercups or kingcups. Helen’s motto is “Full of charm.”
Helen of Troy was a daughter of Jupiter and Leda. She caused the war of Troy by running away from her husband Menelaos, king of Sparta with Paris, a prince as beautiful as herself.
Helen of Troy is to this day esteemed the goddess of navigation, and certain meteoric flames occasionally seen on the masts of ships are called “Helen’s Fire.” If the flame is single, foul weather is at hand; if two or more flames appear, weather conditions will improve.
The Empress Helena was the mother of Constantine the Great, and the rediscovery of the cross is imputed to her. Some records have it that she was a native of Treves, others that she was an English woman,
In Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well,” Helen or Helena typifies a woman lovely in person, at once patient and hopeful, strong in feeling and sustained through trials by her enduring and heroic faith.
Edgar Allen Poe worshipped at the feet of two Helens, Helena Stannard, the love of his passionate boyhood, and Mrs. Helen Whitman.
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