Meaning and background
The story behind Elaine
Elaine comes through an Old French form of Helen and has a strong Arthurian literary history. The reference identifies an Elaine in Malory's account as Galahad's mother, and notes the influence of Tennyson's Arthurian writing on later English use. That is a more specific background than simply calling the name medieval. English reference readings vary in the opening vowel but emphasize the final syllable. For a dog, Elaine offers a literary personal-name choice whose story can be told without claiming a certain literal meaning for Helen.
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About Elaine
Recorded as a dog’s name
Elaine appears in 4 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/ɪleɪn/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the second syllable in the recorded US readings.
Other dictionary readings and notation
/ɪleɪn/ · primary stress on syllable 2IH0 L EY1 N
/əleɪn/ · primary stress on syllable 2AH0 L EY1 N
/ileɪn/ · primary stress on syllable 2IY2 L EY1 N
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.