Eleanor, that's kind of an old lady name. I like Nellie better. Nellie Kincaid, that's got a nice ring to it. It sounds like you're a singer or something.
The captain is a nervous Nellie who can't make a decision without the approval of his protective aide-de-camp.
Woody Allen plays his most frazzled variation on the Woody we know best: a nervous-Nellie urban neurotic kvetching his way through life as a means of avoiding it.