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neither, it's e-LIE-sha (similar to Elijah)
And male

Honestly, almost as automatically female, then, at a second glance, I realized that it is actually male.

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My pronounciation would be Eh-LEE-sha.

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First thoughts in the way of Alisha, Elisha, Alicia, Alessia, even more Elijah and Elias.

A and male.

I pronounce as El-ee-shuh

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It is a male name so I would think for boys!

a
and male

I'd pronounce it El-ee-sha.
I'd think it would be male

El ee sha and male

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I would assume a very religious Christian or Jewish family

Masculine and like ee-LIE-shə

The second one, and it being more unisex! If it was the first pronouncation it would be spelled Elijah for a male!

My dd's bff (m) pronounces his name (Elisha) with the long i sound. At one point, the name might have seemed more feminine to me. Not anymore. It also took me awhile to be drawn to male names ending in a. I still can't say that I totally love them, however, having a nephew named Ezra has helped a lot.

a) male

I think of it as strictly male. I do not pronounce the first syllable as "el" but as "ee." The second syllable I pronounce as LIE. I like the name quite a bit.

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For a female, I would go with Elysia.

This message was edited 12/22/2016, 5:00 AM

b) and female

This message was edited 12/22/2016, 3:12 AM

Hi !!!

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eh-LEE-sha

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A male.

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I dislike it.

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Byeeeeeeee

This message was edited 12/22/2016, 2:21 AM

The Biblical name Elisha is a BOYS' name pronounced el-EYE-sha. It is not a girls' name, even if it ends in a and sounds feminine. It is largely irrelevant whether or not it has been used as a girls' name; the fact remains that it is masculine, not feminine.

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In Toby Alone by Timothee de Fombelle, there is a female character called Elisha. However this is a combination of El (her father's name) and Isha (her mother's name) and so I believe is pronounced el-ISH-ah. That is the only time I've seen "Elisha" as a female name and even then it wasn't the Biblical name that was used.

This message was edited 12/22/2016, 1:56 AM

Definitely e-LIE-sha, and since Elisha was a rather distinguished Old Testament prophet, definitely male all the way!

I would pronounce it: el-EE-sha

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And presume it is a female name - along the lines of Alisha, Alicia etc etc

A. It's male cos the Bible character was male but I wouldn't be surprised to see it on a girl either.

I actually knew a little girl named Elisha, she'd be a teenager by now, she pronounced it e-leesh-a.

I would initially pronounce it El-ee-sha and assume a girl (if I didn't see the child) if I knew the child was a boy I would automatically pronounce it El-eye-sha

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I love it for a boy.

Its a male name pronounced E-lye-shuh.

I would say a) and assume it was a male.

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I don't think most people who aren't name lovers would, though.

I'd assume masculine and pronounce it El-ie-sha, like Elijah with a sha.

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I have, however, met a girl named Elisha, pronounced like Alicia.

I am from the Netherlands, so my pronunciation of the name does not match the two options that you listed. I would pronounce it as ay-LEE-shah.

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However, if I had to choose between the two pronunciations that you listed, then I would go for number 2, as that matches the Dutch pronunciation the closeliest.

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And to answer your other question: I would at first assume the name to be female, as I would with the majority of names that end in -a (the exception of course being the few -a names of which I already knew in advance that they are male, like Ezra and Reza). The feminine appearance of the name to me is further emphasised by the fact that the name closely resembles the traditional feminine name Alicia and some of its variant spellings, such as Aleesha.

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I think I might end up not being the only person who is reminded of Alicia when seeing this name (if not here on BtN, then in real life), which leads me to think that you might have a bit of a hard time passing Elisha off as male in any country that isn't Israel (where Elisha originates from). As such, it might perhaps be better to reserve Elisha for the middle name spot and to choose a more clearly masculine name for a first name.

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Either way, the best of luck with whatever you choose to do. :)

B (el-ee-sha)

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First I think female but then I think it could be either. (Without looking it up first I think it's originally male but sounds more unisex).

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But el-eye-sha sounds more male.