In a conversation with a friend, I mentioned that my husband and I would like to use the name [name]Lila[/name] for a future daughter. My husband loves the name [name]Lily[/name], but the popularity is a turn off for me, so we thought [name]Lila[/name] was a good compromise. After explaining all this my friend replied that [name]Lila[/name] sounded too “southern.” I was taken aback (as any name lover would be when their name choice is questioned). So does [name]Lila[/name] sound too southern? I realize that it has a certain Southern air but do you immediately associate the name with a little girl working on a farm or having a thick Southern accent? Or am I being ridiculous letting one person affect my feelings about the name?
[name]Lila[/name] would not strike me as southern in a million years. [name]Lilac[/name] is on my long list, which is obviously similar - and [name]Lila[/name] could be a nickname. There’s also [name]Delilah[/name] as an alternative. I think your friend might be the only person who would ever hear that name and get a “southern” vibe.
[name]Lila[/name] is NOT “too Southern.” Or even Southern at all.
I’m from the Deep South, and I know of one [name]Lila[/name]. When I hear the name, I think of whimsy and perfume and a classy sort of girl. Not a country bumpkin. A “Southern” name to me would be [name]Mae[/name], [name]Caroline[/name] nn [name]Callie[/name], or the mother’s maiden name. Those sorts of things.
Also, I love the meanings - “night” and “lilac.”
[name]Lila[/name] is a great name. [name]Don[/name]'t let another woman’s opinion ruin a lovely name for you!
I’m from the UK so maybe I can’t comment on the southern thing but seems an odd thing to suggest-I love the name [name]Lila[/name]-it was on our short list (spelt lilah tho) for first daughter who is lily-rose. If you love it don’t let a friend make you think you can’t pick it!
I don’t associate it with the South at all! Plus if you look at the babynamewizard.com’s name mapper it is only in the top 100 for New [name]England[/name] and [name]Montana[/name]. (At least currently… my browser is not cooperating so I can’t look back at other years which you should be able to do.)
If you really like the name I think you should go for it.
My Grandmother’s name was [name]Lila[/name] and she grew up in NYC so the name doesn’t seem Southern at all to me. If I had to choose [name]Lila[/name] or [name]Lily[/name] as which is more Southern sounding it would have to be [name]Lily[/name] because I associate Southern belle’s with “wilting lillies.” I have never lived in the South so I can’t say whether either are common names there.
Could your friend be thinking of [name]Lila[/name] in relation to “[name]Delilah[/name]”? [name]Delilah[/name] does seem a little Southern belle to me (and reminds me of the radio hostess, of whom I’m not particularly fond), but [name]Lila[/name]-- definitely not Southern! Opposite actually. [name]Lila[/name] seems like a somewhat multicultural choice, and I tend to think of it in the [name]Leila[/name]/[name]Layla[/name]/[name]Leela[/name] family of names. It’s very beautiful, stylish, and works well for both a girl and a woman. It’s also quite versatile in other ways. It sounds equally at home as the name of an artist or a doctor or a teacher. It’s a really good choice! [name]Lily[/name] is too popular for my tastes, but [name]Lila[/name] is still quite fresh. It also sounds more sophisticated than [name]Lily[/name].
[name]Don[/name]'t let your friend’s offhanded remark throw you off the name! It’s a great choice.
I love the name [name]Lilah[/name]/[name]Lila[/name] and no I don’t think it sounds southern at all.
It sound sophisticated and slightly vintage to me. I also prefer it to [name]Lily[/name].
The only southern association I could think of is the character [name]Lyla[/name] on the little watched Friday [name]Night[/name] Lights which is set in [name]Texas[/name].
Maybe your friend watches “Quints by Surprise” on TLC. Which the title doesn’t make sense to me when they used in vitro- different subject anyways. One of the quints is named [name]Lila[/name] and they live in [name]Austin[/name], TX.
I live in MN and when I hear [name]Lila[/name], I think “[name]Texas[/name]”, not so much “Southern”. Which in reality makes no sense seeing how [name]Texas[/name] is in the southeren US. “Southern” to me is [name]Delilah[/name] like someone else said, or [name]Georgianna[/name], southeren belle type names. I personally like [name]Lila[/name], [name]Lilah[/name], [name]Lyla[/name], etc. I think it’s a very pretty name and would fit a child well throughout her life.
No, not really. There’s a [name]Lila[/name] in my family tree, who is from points west, not south. I kind of do get that feeling from [name]Delilah[/name] as another poster said, not sure why. I don’t care for [name]Delilah[/name], but not because it feels southern. As a semi-southerner myself, I’m not sure what would be so bad about a name feeling southern anyway : D. I do think that that long ‘i’ sound lends itself well to being said with a drawl, like Laaah-la, but still, ultimately, no, [name]Lila[/name]'s not a southern name to me.
For me, yes. [name]Lila[/name] has always had a certain Southern air. As the pp said, I think it may be that the name sounds like it’s just asking for a drawl. Also, some of my fave Southern authors-[name]Pat[/name] [name]Conroy[/name], [name]Anne[/name] [name]Rivers[/name] Siddons-have used [name]Lila[/name] in their work, so I think something about the name just conjures up a Southern sensibility. It may not be “exclusively” Southern-but then, what name is?-but it definitely has Southern overtones to my ears. I wouldn’t let that preclude you from using it, though.
[name]EDIT[/name]: I just saw that your main concern was that is sounded like a girl “working on a farm.” I don’t think most peoples’ first image of a Southern girl is a farm worker, A, and B, i don’t think that is the connotation your friend is talking about with [name]Lila[/name]. If anything, she conjures up an image of a well-born Southern girl who grows up to be a debutante and a Pi Phi at UVA.
One of my cousins named her baby [name]Lyla[/name] as a first name. We’re from Chicago and I must say that little [name]Lyla[/name] is a spitfire and the name seems so spunky to me after knowing her. No southern vibes here!
I grew up in [name]Louisiana[/name], in a family from the South, and have lived in several other southern states in my life, and I’ve never, ever, [name]EVER[/name] met a [name]Lila[/name]. There’s not one in my family tree, either. It’s a nice name, but I’m not sure why she thinks it is southern.
Also, southern women are not “wilting lilies.” We are [name]Steel[/name] Magnolias.
And I think Friday [name]Night[/name] Lights is set in west [name]Texas[/name], and I’ve lived out that way, too, and can say with certainty they are not Southern. At a restaurant I asked if the tea was sweet, and the waitress frowned at me and said, “Um, we have regular [unsweet] tea!” (Which is what I wanted, but still, lol!) I think of [name]Texas[/name] as having a culture unto itself; it’s borrowed from southern culture, but I found it to be very different in many ways, as well, at least in the western areas.
To the person who said [name]Lila[/name] sounds Texan–I am from TX and have never met a [name]Lila[/name]. I have never known [name]Lila[/name] to be either “Southern” or “Texan.”
And sweet tea in TX is common. Not sure what that is all about.
I was in [name]West[/name] [name]Texas[/name], almost New Mexico. No where I went served sweet tea as is; they offered sugar and other sweeteners, but it wasn’t premade (and she did call it regular tea and looked at me like I was nuts, lol). It was a pretty small town, too. I have family from east [name]Texas[/name], and they say it’s more like [name]Louisiana[/name] on their side. I’m guessing the size of [name]Texas[/name] allows for a lot of different cultures to influence different areas.
Definitely. In fact, the line that most historians use to mark the westernmost boundary of the South runs down thru [name]East[/name] [name]Texas[/name]. Galveston is very different from [name]El[/name] Paso.
