LEA and CLEMENCE

I am a big fan of French baby names, especially for girls, with [name]Lea[/name] being one of my favourites at the moment.
The only thing holding me back from using it in the future is the [name]Star[/name] Wars connotation that goes with it’s French pronunciation (ley-ah), and so I was wondering what you guys on here think…

[name]Lea[/name] pron. ley-ah, or
[name]Lea[/name] pron. lee-ah?

Also - I am aware the French pronuncation of [name]Clemence[/name] is clay-mahns, but is there a sort of acceptable english pronuncation for it too (e.g. cle-mence like in [name]Clementine[/name])?

Thanks for your time! I’m new here so I hope I’ve posted this in the right place!

  • [name]Zarah[/name]

I would pronounce [name]Lea[/name] as [name]Lay[/name]-a, but only because I’m familiar with the singer [name]Lea[/name] Salonga, and I learned how to pronounce her name. I can see how it would be confusing to people, but I [name]LOVE[/name] the name, I think it’s gorgeous.

[name]Lea[/name] must be in the air! I would personally pronounce it as [name]Lee[/name]-uh.
I’m in [name]LOVE[/name] with the name [name]Leia[/name] ([name]Lay[/name]-uh) just like the princess from [name]Star[/name] Wars. It does however mean child of heaven in Hawaiian and that would be defense if asked “just like the movie”. It probably doesn’t help that yes my husband is a big [name]Star[/name] Wars fan. I don’t know if he could ever get over the “princess” attachment to the name though. :expressionless:

[name]Lea[/name] could also be pronounced lee, so it is a tricky one.
I would say cleh-mence just like the beginning of [name]Clementine[/name] if I saw the name

[name]Lea[/name] is so pretty, and I love the pronunciation of lay-uh, but there is the issue that many people will probably pronounce it lee-uh. If you like the lee-uh pronunciation as much as you like the lay-uh one, then perhaps go with [name]Leah[/name] to avoid confusion. I think it’s a beautiful name, too.

[name]Clemence[/name], pronounced cleh-mence, is an English girls’ name too. It is very similar in sound to the male version, [name]Clement[/name], though, so if this bothers you then perhaps [name]Clementine[/name] could be another choice?

I’ve been trying to rack my brains for a better phonetic pronunciation of the French [name]Clemence[/name], but I haven’t had much luck … the best I can do is clay-mawnce … but the ‘aw’ sound is halfway between an ‘eh’ an ‘oh’ and an ‘ah’ …

Good luck!