I like how it's a city and has a different origin. But most people will mistake it for a really trendy misspelling unless you do Alésia, but then as you said, they will say ah-LAY-see-ah or ah-LAY-zee-ah which is not bad, but not what you want.
I'd just go with the classic
Alicia and do the explaining :/ I mean
Alicia Silverstone pronounces hers ah-LEE-see-a and she gets by. It's not a weird pronunciation and the name isn't common nowadays so it would work.
I also like Alissia,
Alyssia and
Elysia, Elissia, but I guess they're too trendy looking and sound a bit different from ah-LEE-see-ah.
Elysia has a different origin and a cool meaning as does
Elissa which I also like but wouldn't use because people would think it was
Alyssa.
Argh complicated :P
This message was edited 9/13/2011, 6:47 PM