I like both
Isla and
Ayla. I don't think it matters that people have to be taught to say it, and I think some will need that no matter how you spell it. Most of the time, we hear names before we read them, so it's rarely a bother.
I personally prefer to spell EYE-la as Eila. It just looks like EYE-la to me, because I learned to read
Eileen as eye-Leen.
Isla is probably the most recognizable, and would need the least teaching. I like the look of it more than
Ayla.
But I like the meaning of
Ayla more. I've seen
Ayla used, for a friend's family member, and I struggled a little to learn to read it as EYE-la. But it's no worse than teaching people that your
Kyra is pronounced
Kira.
I guess it does look a little "trendy" - if I didn't know it was Turkish I might be reminded of
Kayla, or
Layla. It wouldn't matter to me, though.
Eilidh is a neat name. Seems less substantial to me than
Isla or
Ayla. Not trendy, but trendy sound. And the silent dh ... I know this makes me sound like a hick American, and it might not matter to you at all and that's fair - but it annoys me a little if it is used for someone who wasn't personally from Scotland or named after someone who was. I'd rather see it anglicized - Eily, or even Ailey or Aylee. Otherwise it's kinda like
Eithne instead of
Edna or
Enya... why make it difficult? I don't emotionally distinguish between an American-not-Scottish person choosing
Eilidh, and an American person choosing McKaelagh. I know better, but.
Ailish just makes me think of
Billie "Eyelash" ... and I've never seen Ailish before, and so to me, yeah, it does seem made up, like a very trendy name that is purely a riff on
Eilish. So I respond to it about like I responded to
Miley in 2007. I don't like the -ish ending, generally, because my brain turns it into the English suffix -ish.
- mirfakThis message was edited 7/31/2020, 8:59 PM