I’m seeing conflicting information on the official, correct pronunciation. That aside, how would you pronounce it?
[name]Kinda[/name] like Lehv or Level without the -el.
^^ this is how I read it, as well (didn’t want it to be in the initial post so as to distract from readers own opinions). I’ve seen pronunciations listed as LEH-eev, layv, leev and [name]LEE[/name]-of.
Lehv or Leev
I studied education and a major theorist in that field is [name]Lev[/name] Vygotsky and we always pronounced it like level without the - el at the end.
I know a few Levs and it always rhymes with the “[name]Bev[/name]” in [name]Beverly[/name]. The “Leev” pronunciation is spelled [name]Liev[/name]. [name]Hope[/name] that helps!
Good good. Thanks for all the posts. I was shocked to see so many different pronunciations when “lehv” seems so obvious and logical.
Gotta agree. I pronounce it ‘level without the -el’ too.
like the [name]Kev[/name] in [name]Kevin[/name] is the best way I can think to explain how I pronounce it
Lehv for me too. I prefer the name [name]Liev[/name].
Personally, I always say pronounce it the same as [name]Liev[/name] (Lyehv) because I assume it’s pronounced like the Russian [name]Lev[/name], and hey, you can’t go wrong with sharing a name with Tolstoy. That said, I’ve never met a non-Russian named [name]Lev[/name], so if I met a [name]Lev[/name] with two English-speaking parents, I’d probably take my cue from them.
I think that IS the correct pronunciation for Russian [name]Lev[/name], though apparently it’s either of both Russian and Latin origin OR it was popularized in [name]Russia[/name] but originated in Latin. The Latin pronunciation should be lehv as in “level,” so it seems one would be free to use either pronciation, and justified in choosing “lehv” even if it’s more commonly “lee-ehv” on an international scale.
My assumption was that the average English-speaking person would default to “lehv.” This was a good trial!
My initial assumption was that it’s a Hebrew name so while I would intuitively pronounce it as most others have describred (level without the “el”), I’d be afraid that I was mispronouncing a Hebrew name, which I would assume would be pronounced as “Leev.” Not sure if that adds any value to your discussion but figured I’d throw it out there.
Of course it does 
the more impressions, the better idea I have of how the average person would read it.
My first thought was that it was a Hebrew name, as well – I was surprised to find that it isn’t.