Best spelling for Seraiah (traditional boy name I’m switching to a girl)

Girl Names
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Not expecting, just thinking.

We currently have 2 girls & 3 boys.

My girls are

Amaré Elyse
Sélah Carys

Amaré (amma-ray) is the exact spelling of the Latin word “to love”.

Sélah (say-luh) is how this pause & praise meditation is spelled in the Bible. The accent is decorative.

If we had a 3rd girl, I’ve been in love with the first name Noémi for a long time as our possible 3rd girl.

But middle name are always up for grabs. I have vacillated from the word-names Rhema, Agapé, Love, or Reign to the established Jael, Miryam, or Rhys.

Lately though I’ve come across the beautiful name Seraiah. Traditionally, it’s an official Boy name in the Bible. But, I recently met a woman Sariha (pronounced as Seraiah—Suh-RYE-uh). And, to me, it seems it could easily be a gender-neutral name, esp as James and other traditional boy names are now used for girls.

But here’s the spelling question.

I love the boy spelling & think it would get the best bet on ppl pronouncing correctly. Also, my DH does not like yooneek spellings. :rofl: so he would def vote for the original Seraiah.

However, both our girls have “established” middle name variations with a “y” and I had hoped to continue that.

So what do you think about the spelling Serayah? Too made-up?

Or, Sarayah (which looks the most made-up to me, but does phonetically work, and would honor my grandma Sara who has passed away. I always wanted to honor her, but didn’t want to use just Sara)

Here are the 3 spelling options I would entertain:
Amaré Elyse, Sélah Carys & Noémi Seraiah
Amaré Elyse, Sélah Carys & Noémi Serayah
Amaré Elyse, Sélah Carys & Noémi Sarayah

Maybe I should make a poll. :thinking:

Also, wdyt of Seraiah as a girls name in the first place?

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I love this name! I know a girl who spells it [name_f]Sariyah[/name_f]. I think [name_f]Sariya[/name_f] also works well. But in the middle name spot, I think just choose which one you like best visually. It probably doesn’t matter so much how intuitive it is to pronounce since most people won’t call her by her middle name.

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Ahh! More variations! :rofl: And I love them, though they are a little farther visually from [name_f]Sara[/name_f], they would probably be pronounced correctly (and that sounds more like Sara).

Thanks for the input!

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I really like Sadie’s suggestion of [name_f]Sariyah[/name_f]. This spelling is easy to pronounce, looks authentic, and contains all the letters of [name_f]Sara[/name_f] (and in the correct order) to honour your Grandma.

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I think [name_m]Seraiah[/name_m] is a lovely name, and could work well on a girl. I prefer the original spelling, but I do understand wanting to match it to your daughters’ middle names.

I also want to throw out the name [name_f]Soraya[/name_f] as an alternative. It obviously has a totally different history, but it’s a beautiful, similar sounding name that already comes with a y!

To honour your grandma I do think [name_f]Saraya[/name_f] | [name_f]Sarayah[/name_f] and [name_f]Saraia[/name_f] | Saraiah are fantastic options. [name_f]Saraia[/name_f] might actually be my favourite of all, because it contains the Biblical [name_f]Sarai[/name_f] as well.

I’m not a huge fan of [name_f]Serayah[/name_f] and [name_f]Sarayah[/name_f].

So my two favourites over all would be
[name_f]Noémi[/name_f] [name_m]Seraiah[/name_m]
[name_f]Noémi[/name_f] [name_f]Soraya[/name_f]
[name_f]Noémi[/name_f] Saraiah | [name_f]Noémi[/name_f] [name_f]Saraia[/name_f]

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Wow, somehow I’ve never seen the name Soraya @columbiacharm So beautiful! True, the meaning changes & it’s more of a distant honorific name, but I think it works!

I do also love Sariyah/Sariya, but don’t love the change in meaning on that one…but like many of you have notes, def gets me closer to Sara without looking too yooneek. :sweat_smile:

The one I feel like looks the most like Sara but with the beautiful sound of Seraiah is Saraia. It might get mistaken for Sarai, but I think it might be worth it! Adding an h (Saraiah) at the end would probably greatly help the Sarai mistake.

Thanks for all suggestions @columbiacharm !

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I’ve seen this name spelt [name_f]Saraya[/name_f]! I also like the [name_m]Seraiah[/name_m] spelling!

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I know of a little Seriah - I think this spelling looks pretty streamlined and intuitive to the pronunciation.

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I read your thread too quickly and read [name_f]Soraya[/name_f] rather than [name_m]Seraiah[/name_m]. :rofl: I was like: but [name_f]Soraya[/name_f] is a feminine name!?!?

I am not familiar with the name [name_m]Seraiah[/name_m]. Another possible spelling is Seraia. It reminds me of the word “sereia” (mermaid in Portuguese).

Because [name_m]Seraiah[/name_m] is 1) the traditional masculine spelling and 2) you want an Y somewhere; I would not choose the [name_m]Seraiah[/name_m] variant for you.

[name_f]Sarayah[/name_f] is my favorite, because it doubles as an honor name. I AM familiar with a lot of [name_f]Sarah[/name_f] variants and [name_f]Sarayah[/name_f] seems like one. [name_u]An[/name_u] even more feminine [name_f]Sarai[/name_f]? Maybe the spellings [name_f]Saraya[/name_f] or [name_f]Saraia[/name_f] look less made-up? It actually suprised me that Sarayah/Saraya/Saraia is not an ancient name; I was sure of it! :rofl:

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Of your options, I like [name_f]Serayah[/name_f] -I feel like it links to [name_m]Seraiah[/name_m] enough to still have that meaning and history while also having the y like your other girls

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Instinctively I would spell this name [name_f]Sariah[/name_f], but to keep your y theme I would go for Seraya(h) or Seriya(h). I think this name definitely works on a girl, and it’s a great way to honor a [name_f]Sara[/name_f]!

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This is the name that popped into my head right away!

Also Saraiah but there’s no “y” in that!

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[name_m]Seraiah[/name_m] is a cute name for a girl! I think it works! [name_f]Serayah[/name_f] and [name_f]Sarayah[/name_f] both work well as a spelling, but I prefer the above suggestions of [name_f]Sariyah[/name_f]. I also like [name_f]Noémi[/name_f] [name_m]Seraiah[/name_m] (or however you plan on spelling it) a lot.

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Thank you for your input @RileyAddison13. And for mentioning that you like the flow/combo. I think it matches well, even though I generally can’t stand any more than one syllable middle with a 3 syllable first (Noémi Love, Noémi Rhys, Noémi Reign etc). But, like my oldest daughter’s name Amaré (Am-uh-RAY) seemed to flow into the 2 syllable Elyse, I think Noémi (No-em-ee) also flows into the 3 :scream: syllable Seriyah (maybe what I’m leaning toward if I can get my husband on board, lol).

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I went to elementary school with a Sarayah who wore it very well so that spelling gets my vote!

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Thank you! The thought of an honor name is exciting to me. We honored my late father in law [name_m]Marcel[/name_m] by naming our first son [name_m]Job[/name_m] [name_m]Marcellus[/name_m], and I really appreciated that we could do such a small but meaningful gesture with a name.

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[name_u]Love[/name_u] knowing that! Thank you for sharing!

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Thanks for your suggestions!

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@Greyblue thank you! I agree with you—I’m leaning toward [name_f]Serayah[/name_f] for all the reasons you mentioned and [name_f]Sariyah[/name_f] for ppl to instinctively pronounce it right. :sweat_smile:

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Haha, all these variations are making my head spin!

[name_u]Love[/name_u] your input! [name_f]Sarayah[/name_f] looks so pretty spelled out, in my mind…

So funny…I would’ve thought those variations were ancient too! But there are obv Persian, Hebrew (2!), and Arabic meanings depending on spelling. Who knew? :rofl:

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