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Some I've collected over the years:

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Bhraedain (Brayden)
Pinnellopii (Penelope)
Kharlieeca (car-LEEK-a)
Tidjra (TEE-dra)
Bekuh (Becca- This was someone I went to middle and high school with, she decided to change the spelling of her name to be "unique")

Kaileigh and Kylee both pronounced KAY-lee
Mikenna and Mekenah
Kalub (Caleb)
Konel (Conall)
Ryon (Ryan)
Jeneen (Janine)
Jennafer

I'm sure someone's mentioned about Maya already, but that's how I'd say it... I can see it being MAY-a, but that wouldn't be the assumed pronunciation in the US (which seems like you're not based on your pronunciation of Xalia). :) I think either way makes sense. I mean, that's how you'd say it in "Mayan."

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My husband worked at an inner-city type school for a few years, and there were a lot of these sort of things. The only one I can think of right now is he had a student named Tatiana, but it was spelled Tytania or something like that.

This message was edited 3/9/2014, 2:03 PM

How is MY uh for Maya bad? That's how we say it here, as a name and the tribe from the Yucatan Peninsula. Or is Maia not pronounced that way where you are?

My college roommate had a sister named Karen, pronounced KORE-en, with the first syllable sounding just like the word core, as in "apple core.". I have always thought that so ludicrous. Karen was a very popular name, so I can only imagine the constant corrections that are necessary, and Karen pronounced the usual way is much prettier anyway. Seemed to me so pretentious and silly. Now Karen's sister, my roommate, was named Zoe and was born in 1960, the same year that I was. Very few babies were being named Zoe in 1960, so I think it obvious that Zoe's and Karen's parents wanted unusual names, but I think that to take a common, popular name and insist on some counter-intuitive pronunciation is not the way to go about that.

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My friend had a daughter named Leigha, which I think is an abominable spelling.

Chatarina - pr. ka-ta-REE-nuh
Cewin - pr. Kevin
Candrah - pr. Sandra
Thérésé - pr. te-RAYS

I went to school with a boy named Ryne (Ryan) and a girl named Danna (Dana).

I am assuming the Xalia pronunciation is an accent thing, in my accent you'd never put an R sound there. So perhaps she's just from somewhere that that would be the correct pronunciation.

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Maya and Maia are different spellings of the same name so I am not sure what is wrong with pronouncing it the same way?

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I can't think of any off the top of my head but, in reference to Shakiaya, a lot of Russian names have an "I" in their names but I kind of like it. Viktoriya, Anatoliy, Anastasiya, Arkadiy, etc. Also, I see Maya more often than Maia. I actually pronounced Xalia zay-lee-uh when first seeing in. Like Xander or Xavier.

I confused by Xalia and Maya ..... What's wrong with those pronunciations?

This message was edited 3/8/2014, 7:55 PM