How to spell may-lee-ah?

Girl Names
1

Want to honor my aunt using the name may-lee-ah, her name is spelt the traditional Italian way of Maglia, which I don’t want to use, due to the silent g confusing people and ending up pronounced.

A few years ago ( pre-[name]Obama[/name] ) we were planning on spelling it malia, but now that people more commonly use the Hawaiian pronounciation of ma-lay-ah we don’t want to use that spelling for fear of having to correct everyone time and time again.

What do you think is the best way to spell the name so that we get the pronunciation of may-lee-ah ?

Maylia ( was the front runner for a while, since my [name]Nan[/name]'s name was [name]May[/name], but I don’t like that the y hangs down - am I being too picky?)
Maelia
Mailia
[name]Malea[/name]
Or should I try a variation using an accent to run my point home?
Maëlia? Mälia?
Or something I haven’t come across yet? I’m hesitant to get too creative, cause I love the name and I want to use a legit name, since its not made up or anything.

Thank you for your insite, it’s been driving me crazy!!! Three more weeks till baby arrives! :slight_smile:

2

I really like this name! Maylia does seem like a good choice for pronunciation purposes. I also like Maelia…perhaps even better than Maylia. What about Maelya? Maeliya? Honestly, I don’t think Maylea or Mayleah are so bad, particularly the latter–think of how many baby names have been combined to make a ‘new’ one-it would still be a true name! OR you could go a slightly different route–I’m not sure how you feel about double-barreled/hyphenated first names, but what about something like [name]May[/name]-[name]Leah[/name]/[name]May[/name] [name]Leah[/name]?

3

I like Maelia. That’s how I imagined it before I read your options,

4

Honestly, when I read your pronunciation all I could think was “animalia” as in the kingdom of living things, since it’s pronounce ahn-ih-may-lee-ah.

I suppose of those choices Maelia is the nicest, but given the connection I’d personally prefer the Hawaiian pronunciation despite the family connection.

5

Thanks?
The Hawaiian pronounciation isn’t my style. Besides, Kingdom of living things isn’t a bad association :wink:

I’m not keen to go the hyphenated route, and I plan to avoid spelling it with the [name]Leah[/name] at the end, since that is my given name, and I’m not personally fond of the junior route :slight_smile: especially since I said no to hubby’s request of a junior! :slight_smile:

Going to run maelia by hubby tonight! Keep the suggestions coming ! :slight_smile:

6

I know a [name]Malaya[/name]…beautiful name and it doesn’t confuse anybody.