How to pronounce "Lucia" and "Leonora"

General Name Discussion
1

See the results of this poll: How to pronounce Lucia and Leonora?

Respondents: 69 (This poll is closed)

  • Loo-SEE-uh : 40 (28%)
  • Loo-CHEE-uh : 18 (13%)
  • LOO-sha : 18 (13%)
  • LEE-o-NOR-ah : 35 (25%)
  • Leh-NOR-ah : 21 (15%)
  • Lay-o-NOR-ah: 9 (6%)
2

I pronounce them LOO-sha and [name]Lee[/name]-o-[name]NOR[/name]-ah

3

I pronounce [name]Lucia[/name] as Loo-see-uh normally but I much prefer the Loo-shuh pronunciation (I knew a girl who pronounced it this way) so I pick that. On sight, I say [name]Lee[/name]-o-nor-uh.

4

I voted for Loo-CHEE-uh because there are a couple girls in my grade with that name and that is how they pronounce it. Also, from what I have experienced, that is also the assumed pronunciation that teachers and subs use.

5

Argh. I’m irritated that this name is becoming popular. [name]May[/name] I ask how old you are?

6

For [name]Lucia[/name] I think it depends on cultural background, but I’ve both of the top 2.

I use the first pronunciation in the poll for [name]Leonora[/name].

To me Leh-[name]NOR[/name]-a would be spelled [name]Lenora[/name] similar to [name]Lenore[/name].

7

I pronounce it as Loo-SEE-uh and [name]LEE[/name]-o-[name]NOR[/name]-ah

8

For me it’s ‘loo-chee-a’ and then I flip flop between ‘lee-oh-nora’ and ‘leh-nora’.

9

I’m not the person you were asking, but I thought I’d chime in since I have a [name]Lucia[/name] (Spanish pronunciation) who is 4 years old. We have only heard of another girl named [name]Lucia[/name] twice in passing since she was born, both little girls we didn’t know at public events we were attending. So in our experience so far, it’s not very popular at all. (We lived in Idaho for the first two years of her life and now in N. [name]California[/name]).

10

Ditto this.

11

At first glance I’d pronounce it LOO-sha. However, there was a Hispanic girl in my college badminton class last year who was named this; I once referred to her in conversation with another girl (who was also Hispanic) without ever having really heard her name said out loud. As soon as I said “Loo-sha” the other girl looked at me funny and said “It’s Loo-CEE-ah.” I felt pretty stupid!

12

I’ve always heard that loo-see-yuh is the spanish pronunciation & loo-chee-yuh is the italian. i prefer the spanish even though i’m italian.