View Message

I prefer Leona. I like Leonie, but Leona sounds more mature to me. Leonie could work as a nickname for Leona even though it's usually a full name.

This message was edited 4/13/2013, 6:57 AM

Both are nice but I prefer Leona overall.

Definitely Leonie! It's one of my faves at the moment.

Leonie! Love it.

Leonora ;)

---

but if I had to, then Léonie.

Leona !

---

I vote for Leona. I don't like anything about Leonie; I agree with the last poster that it is difficult to pronounce and sounds childish. I also think everyone will say Layney.
Leona is so beautiful yet familiar- so much better than Leonie to me.

Leona is 99% likely the name of any future daughter I may have. I love it and my husband has loved it forever! I like that it is feminine but with no frills. I have a theory that older women (I mean older than me - mid 20's)tend to dislike Leona because they associate it with old women who had been born when the name was more popular, in the 1920's-30's, who had died before I was born. My mom thinks "fat old lady" when she hears Leona I think "fresh ladylike and spunky".

---

I don't like Leonie one bit, it sounds like "lay on me" to my ears and even if it didn't lay-oh-NEE or le-uh-NEE are harder to say in general. I feel like I have to use a fake accent to say it correctly. Leonie also sounds a bit too youthful to me and it is also more on the weird side of unusual to me, I think people would mishear it often and all her Lainey or Melanie (I actually kind of like Melanie though) . It also reminds my of Brittany and Stephanie, which I don't like.

Leonie

---

Leonie, a thousand times over. I don't care for the stressed, long "o" of Leona.

---

I've never been able to decide whether I like the English pronunciation ("LEE-uh-nee") or the French ("LAY-uh-nee") for Leonie / Léonie. I'm madly in love with both of them. They are so delicate and sophisticated.

Leonie, I'd plan on giving a girl the middle name Leonie as it's the femme version of the middle I chose myself

Neither...

---

...I prefer Leora.

Leona pronounced LEH-o-nah.

Leonie, definitely

---

I still picture Leona Helmsley when I see Leona. I must have been at a very impressionable age when her scandal the big news of the day. It remains very tied in my mind to the image of someone who is unkind, self-entitled, and dishonest.

Leonie.

Hmm...it's hard to say. I like them both. I think Leona sounds more classic, soft, elegant, pretty. Leonie sounds more fun. I picture Leonie having kind of a crazy personality (in a good way). Plus Leonie has a cuteness about it that Leona doesn't have. I don't know, I think I like them equally.

---

Normally in situations like this I'd say go with Leona and then call her Leonie as a nn but in this case I don't think it works. Leonie is too much of a name on its own...doesn't work as a nn.