Message: "Lani" - Behind the Name

[Opinions] Lani

by New_Chloë (New_Chloe)

5/26/2021, 3:37 AM

This little name caught my attention when I fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole and somehow ended up reading about the Laniakea supercluster of galaxies (which our galaxy belongs to). Laniakea comes from Lani (heaven) and Akea (immeasurable). Lani as a nickname or as a full name struck me as being quite cute.

What do you think of Lani? It has a lot of retro charm for me, but I get tripped up by how to say it - LA-nee, LAY-nee, or LAW-nee. How would you say it?

#Lani

Replies

- Wordsmith

5/26/2021, 12:41 PM

I like it as a nickname for Eglantine or Roxelana! I would only pronounce it as “LAH-nee” (first syllable like that of “father”).

- Anneza +3

5/26/2021, 7:02 AM

I'd say LAnee, but unfortunately that sounds like 'larney' in the local (silent-r) dialect.

This might interest you, Chloe; and perhaps others:

https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2014-06-17-theres-a-larney-on-my-stoep

- clevelandkentevans +2

5/26/2021, 7:48 AM

This needs more explanation for many of us outside of South Africa.

I had no idea until I just looked it up that "larney" is a pejorative slang word for "White person" or "rich person" in South Africa:I

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/larney

The news article Anneza linked to doesn't explain this is "pejorative" so I thought I would add my link.

This message was edited 5/26/2021, 7:50 AM

- Anneza

5/27/2021, 12:12 AM

It's mildly pejorative at best. Rather like 'posh' in Britain. Imagine a young South African, black, white, whatever, first pay cheque, first job, treating themself to a coffee machine. The sales assistant produces a top-or-the-range model; the purchaser laughs and says "That's too larney for me!" Or, when I suggested Caroline as a name for our daughter, my husband was concerned that it might be larney - I won that round. We bought a new car once, having driven an elderly rust bucket for years, and named it Cyprus Airport because it was a larney car (Larnaca ...). There are certainly words that are pejorative enough to start a riot - kaffir in my country, nigger in yours, I think wog in the UK - but larney is far from that.

- New_Chloë (New_Chloe)

5/26/2021, 8:34 AM

Thank you Anneza and clevelandkentevans!

I love it when I learn something new here. I had no idea about "larney"!

- Pink Princess

5/26/2021, 5:43 AM

I’ve loved this name for years, it’s so sweet. I do adore a lot of Hawaiian names though, they can be so beautiful. In Hawaiian it’s pronounced as LAH-nee, so that’s how I say it too. I also love lots of the names for girls containing Lani, such as Leilani, Melelani, Kalani and so on.

- clevelandkentevans

5/26/2021, 5:27 AM

As a Hawaiian name this is pronounced LAH-nee. I would never say it as "Law-nee"; but since I do not have the "ah/aw" merger I would never say Lonnie as "Law-nee" either.

This seems a bit insubstantial as a given name to me, but it will be heard frequently as a pet name in the future because of the recent big rise in girls name Kehlani, Kalani, Kailani, and Milani.

- Dianatiger

5/26/2021, 4:49 AM

I would be prone to saying the Lay-nee pronunciation. For Law-nee it's better as Lonnie. This reminds me of a circle of outdated L names but Lanay (la-Nay) in particular.

I really dislike i ending names because it looks incomplete to me. For Lay-nee, Laney is better imo & for Lan-nee, Lanie

This message was edited 5/26/2021, 4:51 AM

- Kerilyntaryn21

5/26/2021, 4:14 AM

It's ok

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