Given as the Quenya name of Doriath in the essay Quendi and Eldar from 1959-60, attested only in its genitive form Lestanórëo in the phrase Elwe, Aran Lestanórëo “Elwe, King of Doriath” (WJ/369). Its final element is certainly nórë “land”. Its initial element lesta resembles S. lest “girdle” in the name S. Lest Melian “Girdle of Melian” and may have a similar meaning. In the earlier poem Fíriel’s Song from the 1930s, the instrumental form lestanen of ᴹQ. lesta was translated “in measure” (LR/72), though it isn’t clear whether the meaning “measure” remained valid when Quendi and Eldar was written.
Conceptual Development: The name ᴱQ. Artanor was given as the equivalent to the precursor of Doriath: G. Dor Athro “Land Beyond” (LT2A/Artanor).
Lestanórë place-name "Doriath", gen. Lestanórëo (WJ:369). If this name means the same as the Sindarin name Doriath, "Land of the Fence", #lesta ought to mean "fence" here (but it is obviously not a cognate of the Sindarin term iâth "fence").It may mean "girdle"; compare Sindarin Lest Melian as a name of the Girdle of Melian (WJ:XXX), suggesting*"Girdle-land" as the meaning of Lestanórë.