[name_m]Hi[/name_m], we recently named our baby [name_f]Leila[/name_f] pronounced lay-la and i am having serious baby name regret. We have an Italian last name. She is 1 month old. Some people have called her lie-la and lee-lah and it’s only making me feel worse like she will be correcting people her whole life. Is it crazy to change it to [name_f]Gia[/name_f] or [name_f]Sofia[/name_f] at this point? We already sent out birth announcements so not sure what we would do. Please give your opinions! Thanks
I read it as lay La . I don’t see how they get the other pronunciations. It’s Lei… like the Hawaiian flower necklace. I think people who spend a lot of time with her won’t need to be corrected a lot. But strangers might. But how often will a stranger be reading her name and mentioning it? If it really really bothers you, you need to do what you feel is best.
I read the name as [name_m]Lay[/name_m]-la as well. If it really bothers you I would give her what I call a [name_u]Nick[/name_u]-Name Name. Where you can call her [name_f]Gia[/name_f] (I prefer [name_f]Gia[/name_f] over [name_f]Sofia[/name_f] by the way) but her real name is still [name_f]Leila[/name_f]. The only thing would be on the first day of school where she would have to say “Yes, my name is [name_f]Leila[/name_f] but I go by [name_f]Gia[/name_f].”, and then that is that! Good luck!
I don’t if this helps at all, but I know a teenager from [name_m]New[/name_m] Zealand who pronounces her name as [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-lah and a Canadian woman in her 60s who pronounces it [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-lah, too. So, I don’t intuit [name_f]Leila[/name_f] as [name_f]Layla[/name_f].
I can sort of see how they get the other pronunciations, but I’ve heard [name_f]Leila[/name_f] pronounced as [name_m]LAY[/name_m]-lah so much that it surprises me that you’ve gotten so much mispronunciations. [name_f]Do[/name_f] you still like the name? Or is it mainly that the mispronunciations are getting to you? [name_f]Leila[/name_f] is beautiful–I’ve been admiring it myself lately! My sister went to school with a very beautiful girl named [name_f]Leila[/name_f], and it’s always stuck with me.
If you don’t think you can stick to the [name_f]Leila[/name_f] spelling but still like the sound, you could go for something simple like [name_f]Layla[/name_f] (although I think [name_f]Leila[/name_f] looks infinitely more pretty!). I do adore [name_f]Sofia[/name_f], and would be happy to know one personally, but [name_f]Leila[/name_f] feels more fresh to me, and if a part of you still loves it I’d hate to see you give it up! For what it’s worth, the [name_f]Leila[/name_f] my sister went to school with–at least in our circle–never seemed to have it said wrong. It may seem like a LOT of mess-ups and mispronunciations now, but once she’s established within your circle (and eventually her own), it doesn’t seem like it’d be a lot. She’ll introduce herself as [name_f]Leila[/name_f] and people will just acclimate. I have grown up with more kids with unusual names than common ones, and it just becomes commonplace. [name_f]Addy[/name_f] on a boy, names like Marw@yne, Conn0r on a girl, made up names like K@biliyza, modern names like D@wson, international names like [name_m]Brun[/name_m]@ and [name_f]Mariel[/name_f]@… I can think of more people with unusual names that I know than people with names like [name_f]Mia[/name_f], [name_f]Sophia[/name_f], [name_f]Isabella[/name_f], [name_u]Michael[/name_u], [name_m]Andrew[/name_m], [name_u]Seth[/name_u], or [name_u]James[/name_u].
I’m not saying don’t change it–if you can’t get into [name_f]Leila[/name_f], change it before she identifies too strongly with the name–but [name_f]Leila[/name_f]'s such a beauty that I would love to see you keep it. If you can’t, though, I think [name_f]Sofia[/name_f]'s a REALLY beautiful alternative. 
Good luck!
I read it as [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-La. [name_m]Don[/name_m]'t know why but that’s how I’m seeing it. If you really like the name and want to keep it, have you considered making [name_f]Leila[/name_f] her middle name and having [name_f]Gia[/name_f] or [name_f]Sofia[/name_f] the first? That way you can call her by her middle name, and probably the only correction would be telling people she goes by the middle.
I think [name_f]Leila[/name_f] is pretty and I don’t know how people mispronounce it so often. [name_f]Do[/name_f] you still love the name? Try to consider how you feel about the name itself and determine how big of a deal it is to you that she will have people mispronounce it maybe a couple times a year. If you determine that the mispronouncing is changing how you feel about the name itself, then consider changing it. But if you still adore it and see it fits her nicely, then stick with it and people will catch on very quickly - especially in todays world of strange names and misspelled names ([name_f]Leila[/name_f] is NOT one of those, by the way).
If it were me and I had serious regret, I would change it to a name that that felt right and that I loved. Sometimes it is hard to know exactly how you are going to feel about a name. If you are sure you would rather her have a different name, change it. She is one month old and will never know the difference! [name_f]Do[/name_f] not worry about what other people think, it is most important that you are happy with her name & it feels right. Send out another announcement if need be! Or not! If it were me, I’d give a short and simple answer like, it was not the right name, it didn’t feel right, so we changed it. Personally I think [name_f]Leila[/name_f] is pretty but I did initially read it as [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-La. Based on your experience so far, it seems some people will mispronounce it at first. If that is causing you to regret the name, changing it now is a totally acceptable option. I also agree spelling it [name_f]Layla[/name_f] could help clarify the pronunciation.
[name_f]Do[/name_f] it. It sounds like you are going quite mad and that will be bad in the long run. My only thing is what about [name_f]Isabetta[/name_f]?
Like a PP said, [name_m]Lay[/name_m]-luh seems like an intuitive pronunciation because it reads like the word for lei, like the flower necklace. It could just be a regional thing though that’s causing the pronunciation issues… Is changing the spelling an option at all? You could change it to [name_f]Layla[/name_f] and explain to friends and family that you sent the birth announcement to that there was a change of heart about the spelling, but the name is still the same. That seems a lot easier than changing her name completely.
But like it’s been said, if you aren’t in love with the name for her, then now is the easiest time to change it. She’s only a month old, so it’s not like she’s attached to the name, and the birth announcements won’t mean much in the long run anyway. They’re just a piece of paper, and your loved ones and everyone who’s important will learn and accept her name if you decide to change it.
[name_m]Lay[/name_m]-la is an intuitive pronunciation for me, but I can see why you find it annoying to have to correct people. That being said, if you used [name_f]Sofia[/name_f] there would probably have to be a lot of “[name_f]Sofia[/name_f], not [name_f]Sophia[/name_f].” A lot of names have multiple spellings so this isn’t an issue for me personally, but this might be something for you to think about. I do prefer [name_f]Gia[/name_f] and [name_f]Sofia[/name_f] to [name_f]Leila[/name_f] myself.
Echoing PPs’ thoughts, it’s definitely not too late to change her name if you don’t like it. She won’t even know/recognize it yet. If you actually like [name_f]Gia[/name_f] or [name_f]Sofia[/name_f] better, by all means change it, but if [name_f]Leila[/name_f] is still your favourite name, keep it and people will learn! It’s a fairly common and familiar name I should think, people will get it once they know her.
I know 3 [name_f]Leila[/name_f]'s - one pronounced [name_u]LEE[/name_u]-la, one LIY-la and one [name_m]LAY[/name_m]-la. When I see the name, I have to ask how to pronounce it, but I think it’s up to you whether you keep it or not. Is it going to bother you a lot, or is it just something small? If it’s just something small, I’d say go with it…especially as it’s such a beautiful name! Those who she is with a lot will quickly get used to it, and many stranger’s aren’t likely to see her name written, so will just hear how you say it and say it that way.
I would pronounce [name_f]Leila[/name_f] as [name_m]Lay[/name_m]-la for sure. And I think it’s a lovely name. I have met people named both [name_f]Leila[/name_f] and [name_f]Layla[/name_f] (pronounced the same). The Lie-la(s) and [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-la(s) I have met have spelled their names as [name_f]Lila[/name_f] (the same for both) or [name_f]Leela[/name_f], and never as [name_f]Leila[/name_f], so to me the spelling is not ambiguous.
As others have said, you can still change her name if that’s the right choice for you (she won’t know any differently, and the people around you should accept your decision and eventually forget that she had any other name to start with). That said, with your other choices, there will doubtless be other corrections that have to be made. Some people will probably say [name_f]Gia[/name_f] with a hard “g” sound, or spell it as Jia or Gea. And [name_f]Sofia[/name_f] is bound to be written as [name_f]Sophia[/name_f] all the time. So maybe it’s just a question of: Which name do you love so much that those corrections won’t bother you? And if making any corrections really does bother you, then going with a very common name like [name_f]Mia[/name_f] or [name_f]Sophia[/name_f] might actually be the best bet.
In any event, congratulations on your sweet baby girl. [name_f]Remember[/name_f]: “A rose by any other name would be smell as sweet.” [name_f]Leila[/name_f], [name_f]Gia[/name_f], and [name_f]Sofia[/name_f] are all great names
I agree with [name_u]Ash[/name_u] - for me it’s surprising you’re getting so many mispronunciations. I really thought [name_f]Leila[/name_f] was intuitive [name_m]Lay[/name_m]-la. Maybe if you offered up a similar name, like " it’s [name_f]Leila[/name_f], rhyming with [name_f]Kayla[/name_f]". I feel like this works and it’s how I basically mitigated the mispronunciations of [name_f]Noor[/name_f]'s name: “rhyming with [name_m]Moore[/name_m].”
[name_f]Leila[/name_f] is very intuitive for me because it’s a variation of my name, [name_f]Laila[/name_f] (Lie-la) and very easily said in Latino communities, Italian communities and the Arab communities - it’s one of those rare names that are easily said and adaptable EVERYWHERE. So don’t give up on [name_f]Leila[/name_f] yet, people will learn how to say it and you won’t have many problems.
And congrats on your beautifully named baby girl! [name_m]Ah[/name_m], do you sing the [name_m]Eric[/name_m] Clapton song to her? 
I would wait a week and really think about this. You must have loved the name when you picked it. Could you just use a nickname rather than changing her legal name? If you still regret the name in a week or two then you could change it. It’s best to change it while she’s only a few months old. I don’t think having mailed the announcements matter. [name_m]Just[/name_m] tell people after you got to know her she seemed more like a [name_f]Gia[/name_f] or [name_f]Sofia[/name_f]. I think [name_f]Gia[/name_f] is really sweet.
I would simply change the spelling to [name_f]Layla[/name_f]. It’s a beautiful name with more spark than [name_f]Sofia[/name_f]. I simply dislike [name_f]Gia[/name_f].
I’d say [name_m]Lay[/name_m]-la.
If you love it, I’d stick to it and don’t let it bother you. Correct people until they get it.
I think it’s fine to change it at this time. The other names of [name_f]Gia[/name_f] and [name_f]Sophia[/name_f] are also wonderful names. If you decide to remain with [name_f]Leila[/name_f], you could change the spelling to [name_f]Laila[/name_f]. It keeps the same feel, but provides clarity.
I had baby name regret with my first daughter because, even though it was a feminine, phonetic name, people hadn’t heard it. They mis-pronounced it, mis-spelled it, etc. I thought we’d made a huge mistake? That passed, though, and people caught on. I’ve had no issues with it since – I can’t imagine my daughter as anything else.
Also…[name_f]Leila[/name_f] is a name I love, and I would have spelled it the same way you did. [name_f]Lyla[/name_f] and [name_f]Leela[/name_f] would be how I’d spell the other pronunciations.
I think [name_f]Leila[/name_f] is a beautiful name and I am surprised people are mispronouncing it. I read it as [name_m]Lay[/name_m]-la. I’d think the other pronunciations would be spelled [name_f]Lyla[/name_f]/[name_f]Lilah[/name_f] and [name_f]Leela[/name_f] (although, I have never even heard that second one as a name.)
Also, [name_f]Leila[/name_f] ([name_m]Lay[/name_m]-la) also seems to be getting more and more popular, so the mispronunciations may become less common as people begin hearing the name more often.
In any case, would say to go with your gut and do what you think is best—it’s your daughter after all.