Aaliyah

Pronounced Aa-lee-yah or A-li-yah.

The correct Arabic pronunciation is Aa-lee-ah, with stress on the Aa. This is also the way the singer pronounced it. Not sure why people pronounce it uh-LEE-uh, or where that pronunciation came from. Aa-lee-ah is much prettier and also far more respectful to the name’s origins. There’s something quite sad about taking cultural names and mispronouncing them. There are two As in this name for a reason.

The name Aaliyah is pretty but you cannot deny the fact that it sounds like "a liar." I live in the Midwest and in my accent and the eastern U.S. accent, Aaliyah sounds a lot like "a liar." This name also sounds like another name, Aniyah which sounds like annihilate (to destroy.)

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An easy way to avoid the problematic names of Aaliyah or Aniyah is to consider similar sounding names like Alia/Aleah
(pronounced A-lee-a), Amara, Samara or Amaya (pronounced A-my-a.)

My daughter is named Aliyah. It means Exalted, or High Standing and is an Islamic/Arabic name. Though many people and websites confuse the singer Aliyah as having this same name, her name is a different name altogether (or if it is the same name she pronounced it wrong). There is a name Alia, also spelled Aliyah for some, which is the feminine version of Ali; it is possible that is where her name came from. Many people name their children names that they think are African or exotic sounding and pronounce it incorrectly, not realizing, of course. Aliyah is an Arabic name and the stress in the word is NOT on the li (LEE) in the middle, but on the "Aa" in the beginning. This is because it starts with the Arabic letter Ain; which is a deep "A" sound from the throat. Aliyah, or Aaliyah, is the Transliteration of the name; the only correct spelling is in Arabic. The Latin spelling is only trying to duplicate the sound the name makes. That goes with any name not originally from the Latin alphabet. It is a beautiful name and my daughter is complimented on it all the time, and no, it does not sound ghetto OR English when pronounced correctly. It is a lesser form and feminine version of one of the characteristic of Allah, Al Aala, or The Most Exalted.

If pronounced in Arabic, it is Aah-lia. Real emphasis is on the beginning. Pronouncing it as a-lee-ah is English preference I suppose.

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I personally think Aah-lia is prettier.

It looks as though it's pronounced like uh-LEE-uh, but I know a girl with this name and she says it AH-lee-ah.

I prefer it pronunciation "Aa-lya".

I don't think this is how it's SUPPOSED to be spelled, also it's Arabic and pronounced AH-LEAH. But I guess if you want you can also pronounce it UL-LEAH or maybe something else, but it's supposed to be AH-LEAH!