Elettra in Pleiades star cluster; Image via Wikipedia

Seeking an authentic Italian heritage choice that leads to the nickname Ellie?  Here’s a celestial, operatic rarity that just might suit.

Thanks to Sarah for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day: Elettra.

No matter intriguing her sound, Electra usually ends up on the discard list thanks to her backstory.

King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra had four kids, including eldest daughter Iphigenia.  Agamemnon was to lead the Greek fleet into battle in the Trojan War, but their ships stalled in the harbor, with no wind to move them forward.  An oracle revealed that Agamemnon had angered a goddess, and the only solution was the sacrifice of Princess Iphigenia.  In some versions of the tale, she is reprieved at the last second.  In others, not so much.

Either way, Clytemnestra was furious, and while her husband was at war, she took a lover.  When Agamemnon came home, instead of a tender reunion,  the queen and her paramour exacted revenge.  As if murder wasn’t enough Greek tragedy, Orestes – their only son and Agamemnon’s heir – later kills his mother with sister Electra’s help or encouragement – accounts vary.

Carl Jung proposed “the Electra syndrome” as the counterpart to Sigmund Freud’s Oedipus complex.

But there are other associations, like Marvel Comic’s heroine-turned-assassin-turned-heroine Elektra, played by Jennifer Garner on the big screen in 2005.

There are even other figures in Greek myth, including one of the seven Pleiades, the daughters of Atlas, best known as a constellation.  Sister Maia has been quite popular as a baby name in recent years; Taygete and Asterope seem less likely to catch on.

Elettra is simply the Italian version of Electra, and she’s just different enough that you may never have to explain that you named your daughter after a star, not a matricidal daughter.

Elettra might also bring to mind:

• In Mozart’s opera Idomeneo, the soprano is Elettra;
• Isabella Rossellini has a daughter named Elettra – a model, and second generation starbaby since she can claim Ingrid Bergman as a grandmother;
• The electric version of the Fiat Cinquecento was called the Elettra.

Elettra also features in the history of radio.  Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi would score a Nobel prize and a fancy title for his work on radio broadcasting.  Marconi had just one daughter, Maria Elettra, known by her second name.  Dad named his yacht in her honor, and Il Panfilo Elettra played an important role in his experiments.

But again, it is quite the Italian reference.

There was one more – or so I thought.  Plutarch’s granddaughter and mother shared a name.  I thought the poet’s mother was named Elettra, but when I started digging, I discovered that both women in his family were likely named Eletta – no r, and probably an unrelated name.

Too bad, because that would almost finally rescue Elettra from Greek dysfunctional family hell, and put her firmly in the Italian heritage choices column

And yet, Elettra is tempting.  She’s slightly severe and regal, but Ellie, Ettie, and Lettie are great short forms.

If you don’t mind the possible reference to the ill-fated Greek princess, Elettra is an intriguing option.