Lea

English Pronunciations: LEE-ə, LAY-ə.

This name can be pronounced multiple ways depending on dialect, accent, and which name you’re using this spelling for. It’s my middle name, but pronounced “Lee.” My grandma, who had to name me while my mom was evidently loopy off of painkillers at the time, spelled it this way because she didn’t like the Robert E Lee association. When moving across country, this is a name that tends to change on you—in the Midwest most people understood it was the British pronunciation (like in the Adele song “River Lea”) but out West it gets pronounced “Lee-ah” like Jacob’s wife. Which I didn’t mind—it’s far better than my first name which I despise—until I came across the East Coast pronunciation…”Lay-uh” like in Star Wars. So I now go by “Lee” and spell it “Lee” because I just can not with that Princess Leia pronunciation (I have lots of East Coast friends.) Sigh…anyway, irritating as the myriad pronunciations can be, it’s still a good name and I love the “Lea” spelling. I’m not happy about having to go by “Lee” to ensure the correct pronunciation, but it is what it is.

I was taught to pronounce it as Lee and that it was an Irish word for meadow.

It is also Hawaiian. It's pronounced LAY-uh.

My mother gave me the middle name of Lea, but pronounced it 'Lee'.
This was her intention.
She said that she spelled it with an 'a' at the end to feminize it.
This makes me think that I'm the only one who has this pronunciation of this name.

We pronounce it Lee. In Middle English it means meadow.

My name is Lea, pronounced Lee-ah. I was named Lea because my mother's middle name is Lee. I like to believe I was named after Leah in the Bible, but I know I'm not. I agree with what someone posted about always having your name mispronounced. I've spent the majority of my life yelling out "Lee-ah" when people pronounce my name as Lee. It's a breath of fresh air when someone pronounces it correctly on the first go around.

This is my middle name, and my parents chose to pronounce it "lee." much like the word "flea" is pronounced "flee". My grandfather even had a rhyme to go with it. My name is Tonya and his nickname for me is "Tawny" and his little song that he used to sing to me went something like this, "Tawny Lea is a flea and she is really buggin' me."

It is pronounced Leh-ah in Norway. Nice three letter name and I prefer the Norwegian pronunciation :)

I'm surprised that as thorough a resource as "Behind the Name" only acknowledges ONE pronunciation for this name. This simple three-letter name can be pronounced several ways. The "German" way this site suggest would only be one--and I'm not even sure THAT's accurate. As someone who has German as a 2nd language, I'd say it's closer to LAY-a. Actress Lea Thompson, however, pronounces her name LEE-a (I believe). Whereas newswoman Lea Thompson pronounces it LEE. As a last name it's also monosyllabic (LEA & PERRIN).

The Dutch pronunciation is LAY-ah.

Listen to the German pronunciation of Lea here:
http://www.nordicnames.de/Aussprache.html.

This name is pronounced Lay-ah in Germany. It´s really popular here.