I really love [name]Dahlia[/name], but I much prefer the British pronunciation ([name]DAY[/name]-lee-a). Could I get away with that in the U.S.?
[name]Hi[/name], [name]Olive[/name]!
I love [name]Dahlia[/name], too, and think that it’s fabulous with [name]Luca[/name]! I’m in the US, and I’d pronounce it DAHL-ee-a or DAHL-ya… I’m not completely positive that [name]DAY[/name]-lee-a would work, but the name is relatively unusual (and you don’t hear of the flower as often as, say, [name]Rose[/name] or [name]Lily[/name]), so maybe it could… Honestly, I adore all of the pronunciations! You may also like [name]Delia[/name] and/or [name]Thalia[/name]…
[name]Hi[/name]!
I say it DAHL-ee-uh or maybe even [name]DAL[/name]-ee-uh (first syllable rhymes with “pal”), but not [name]DAY[/name]-lee-uh. I suppose you could get away with it, though!
[name]Lemon[/name]
[name]Day[/name] lee uh would be the optional prn here but I prefer [name]Dale[/name] yuh
Hmm…sounds like most in the U.S. would say Dah-lee-a or [name]Dal[/name]-ee-a. Maybe we’ll just move to the U.K.! I do still like it, and yes, it goes really well with [name]Luca[/name]
Thanks!
My daughter’s name is [name]Dahlia[/name], and there are two main things I can share with you…
First, because it’s a name of an object–a flower–people are going to pronounce it the way they pronounce the flower, so you’ll get a little less leeway on pronunciation than you would with a name that’s just a name. Although I agree with you, I love the British pronunciation, I just don’t think most people will go along with it.
Secondly, since I’ve named my little girl, it seems like I can’t turn around without meeting a baby [name]Dahlia[/name]. I’ll be very interested to see the 2009 stats, because it seems to be spiking in popularity. The guy who sold me my iPhone last week told me his youngest is a [name]Dahlia[/name], and about two days before that, the girl ahead of me in line at the market had a newborn niece [name]Dahlia[/name].
If you’re looking for that pronunciation in the US I think you’d have better luck using [name]Delia[/name] pn [name]Day[/name]-lee-uh. You would still run into pronunciation issues with people saying dee-lee-uh, but to me at least, both pronunciations sound familiar. I had no idea that [name]Dahlia[/name] can be pronounced any differently than how we say it in the US until I was enlightened on Nameberry!