Lina
A graceful, cross-cultural feminine name often used as a short form of longer names ending in -lina or linked to Eleanor.
Meaning
In the excerpts, Lina is treated mainly as a pet form or shortened form of longer feminine names such as Carolina, Catalina, Paulina, and sometimes Maddalena or Madelena. One excerpt also connects it with Eleanor/Elenora in older English usage, while another notes an older German element meaning “man,” though that explanation is presented as unusual in the source. In modern use, the name is usually felt as a soft, elegant diminutive rather than a name with one fixed literal meaning.
Origin
Fun fact
A 19th-century name book notes that Lina could be a nickname for Eleanor in older English records, and another lists it as a short form of several different long feminine names.