Elay

Boy Names
1

C-section scheduled for tomorrow morning!
My wife has come up with her favorite Chinese name, which if the ‘English’ name didn’t matter, would be her top choice. In Chinese, it’d be pronounced ee-lay (the pinyin spelling is ‘yi lei’). It basically means pure and truthful and steadfast and strong and just. Having a great and meaningful Chinese is important to me (and we live in [name]China[/name], so the Chinese name will be used most often).

Couple of questions:

  1. [name]Do[/name] you think the name Elay looks made up (in actuality, this spelling is completely made up, but since there is no ‘spelling’ in the Chinese language, there would be no ‘correct’ spelling of the name)?

  2. There are several ‘English’ names that sound similar to ee-lay. I don’t really like the name [name]Eli[/name] much, but I do quite like the name [name]Elias[/name]. I don’t mind using [name]Christian[/name] names, but I don’t want to choose a name that feels ‘only’ Biblical (for example, when I hear some names, like [name]Elijah[/name], [name]Jeremiah[/name], Ezekial, etc they just feel too heavily like [name]Christian[/name]-only kind of names to my ear). [name]Do[/name] you think [name]Elias[/name] sounds too heavily Biblical? Are there any other names you can think of that sound similar to ee-lay?

Note: With this Chinese name, I’m also starting to lean more towards strongly considering [name]Evander[/name], since it shares the same first syllable sound as my wife’s favorite Chinese name option. And it’s meaning (Greek= ‘good man’) also shares a lot of commonality with it’s Chinese meaning.

2

[name]Elaine[/name] or [name]Elena[/name] come to mind for a girl. For a boy…[name]Elias[/name] sounds a bit more ‘Biblical’ than [name]Elijah[/name], but probably just because [name]Elijah[/name] is so much more common. I really like [name]Elias[/name], though, and I’m not very religious these days. [name]Ethan[/name] is a great name choice you might also consider. [name]Evander[/name] is good, but to me it brings to mind the boxer [name]Evander[/name] Holyfield…somewhat intimidating.

3

AHhh!! C-section was moved up… to a couple of hours from now! I wonder what this baby will be called! Find out soon…

5

Definitely don’t use Elay in English, at least not for the first name. You could name him [name]Elias[/name] or something else suggested above, and just call him Elay all the time, even in English. Elay sounds very nice when spoken, but on paper, it looks awful and silly. Or, just name him Yi Lei.