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It doesn’t make sense to me. Lei is pronounced lay. It also looks like Leia, which is so culturally ingrained as being pronounced lay-uh because of Star Wars.

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I would pronounce these as LY-la: Lila, Lilah, Lyla, Lylah

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I would pronounce these as LAY-la: Layla, Leila, Laila

As I’ve said before, my DH speaks Arabic fluently and has an aunt named Leila and they all pronounce it as LAY-la. To me, it is that pronunciation and no other, sorry. If you really want Lila, then Lila or Lyla still makes the most sense to me. I would instantly assume a Leila was LAY-la.

I think it could work, but it’s not ideal. By that I mean people would probably mispronounce it at first, but would get it when corrected.

Most times people would pronounce it Lay la

It would work fine after the first time, yeah.

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Reading the responses is weird to me. I would probably read "Layla" off a list, but saying it "Lye-la" would be fine. I think it makes more sense than Lila, which is Leela to me.

This message was edited 7/2/2021, 11:26 AM

Nope

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It’s phonetically untenable in English.

Yes, why not?

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I've actually never Pronounced "Leila" as LAY-la, due to the 'i'.

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Lila & Leila are pronounced the same way for me. Unless it's "Layla".

No

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It doesn't make sense according to English phonetics.

This pronunciation would not naturally be the first one an English speaker in the United States would try when they first look at this name. I think only English speakers who are familiar with the way German is pronounced would naturally think of it as a possibility.

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Other common words and names which start with Lei- (leisure, Leigh, Leighton) are pronounced either rhyming with Lee or Lay by most Americans, so those would be the natural pronunciations of this spelling for most people. In my experience, elderly American women named Leila usually pronounce their name as LEE-la, though younger generations will often use LAY-la. But you really need to spell it Lila or Lyla for most people to try the "lye" pronunciation first.

If someone told me their name was Leila pronounced LY-la, I'd accept it, but it would not be my first or even second guess.

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Lila / Lyla are LY-la for me.

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Leila is LAY-la or maybe LEE-la

I've only ever heard it pronounced as LEEla, so that's what I'd expect. However, English spelling is a many-splendoured thing, and just about anything is possible. And in Afrikaans, -ei- sounds like the English 'long a' sound, as in May or David, so in my country confusion would be built-in.

In the US I've always heard Leila pronounced as either Lee-la, which I understand is wrong, or like Layla. I've never heard it pronounced LY-la. I suppose it works though.

Not really! Leila would probably be pronounced like Layla. That is the way I have always heard it in the U.S. However, you could still pronounce and spell it that way; just be aware that you will most likely have to correct people!

It works in that someone could spell it and pronounce it that way, and people would accept it as an individual's name, but I'd probably guess their parents had a different first language. It seems very unlikely to me it'd be intuitively pronounced that way. I think it's more common where I am for the Arabic version to be spelled Leyla or Lyla? I still pronounce Leyla as lay-la if not corrected, though.

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My first guess for Leila is lay-la, which is the same as I pronounce the Lei in Leia, and my 2nd guess is that it'd rhyme with Sheila.

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Eta:
Leila isn't in Arabic; it's a common transcription of a Persian pronunciation. The Arabic "lie-la" is meant to be transliterated phonetically into whatever language or dialect, so there's not really a correct/standard spelling for it outside of Arabic script.

This message was edited 7/2/2021, 6:45 AM