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There are two Leahs in my family. One is a niece. The other is my ex-husband's daughter. Both are pronounced LEE-ah. My point is that these two families, who never heard of each other, each named a daughter Leah and pronounced it LEE-ah. I think that is overwhelming the pronunciation here (US). So personally if I wanted the LAY-ah pronunciation, I'd use Leia.

Well...

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I don't know if the traditional pronunciation of Leah is Lay-uh. Not in English anyway. I do think it is not as appealing as the pronunciation Lee-uh, simply because of the "lay" in the name as well as the association with Star Wars.

it's nice enough

Leah is LEE-ah (which is beautiful). Spell it Lea or Leia if you want LAY-ah.

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Lay-uh is gorgeous, if a little Star-Wars-ish.

my name is Leah (lee-uh) I really don't like it and I never will. go with Leia and pronounce it (lay-uh)

Actually, I think the original pronunciation is more like LEH-a. I saw a program last night re: Jacob, Rachel and Leah and that's the way the experts pronounced it. Still, English speakers (myself included) tend to say LAY-a or more commonly, LEE-a.

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I think the pronunciation you prefer is fine. In fact, it's very pretty. I know a couple with a dd named Leah Rose. They pronounce it the original way too. In fact, they went to great pains to verify this pronunciation and then make sure family and friends knew how to pronounce Leah. What's odd is that they also have a dd named Ariel but pronounce it AIR-ee-al and use the masculine spelling. I don't get that.

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Anyway, Leah's great no matter the pronunciation. I do think most Americans (if you indeed live in the US) will say LEE-a.

This message was edited 1/31/2007, 1:10 PM

This is the way I like to spell it. It looks much prettier than Leia. And I do like the the traditional Hebrew pronounciation. Probably because by my mom forcing me to go to Hebrew School, I've gotten so used to hearing the story with Leah in it and the Lay-uh pronounciation that any other way just seems odd.

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I prefer Leah for the pron. Lay-uh, and Lia for the pron. Lee-uh. It just seems more natural to me.

I prefer Leah pronounced as LEE-ah. LAY-ah would be spelled Léa or Leia, imo. And the latter spelling, and even the pronunciation (no matter how it's spelled) is way too connected with "Star Wars" for me. Plus having the word "lay" in one's name is not nec. a good thing. :-/

Lea

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I adore Lea - which is a Hawaiian form of "lay-ah".

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My only concern about getting too attached to it is that everyone will say it Lee-uh. Some one mentioned spelling it Leia, but it looks made up to me, and Lea is the traditional Hawaiian spelling

I don't like it at all!