Spelling/Pronunciation of Lilah

Girl Names
1

I’m loving the name [name_f]Lilah[/name_f] (pronounced Lye-La), but am having trouble deciding how I would spell it. I typically prefer simplistic spellings, but when I see the name [name_f]Lila[/name_f], I’m always uncertain if it is pronounced [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-La or Lye-La. What spelling would you use and why?

[name_f]Lila[/name_f]
[name_f]Lilah[/name_f]
[name_f]Lyla[/name_f]

Thanks! :slight_smile:

2

As a general rule I always say the simpler the better (i.e. choosing [name_f]Lila[/name_f]) but I think this one is an exception for me. I think she will get some Lill-a from [name_f]Lila[/name_f] instead of the hard “i” sound. In this case, I’d probably say go with [name_f]Lilah[/name_f].

I’m personally not a fan of adding y’s into names.

3

To me, I would think ly-la with all of those spelling but for most people I’d think you would be safe using [name_f]Lyla[/name_f], maybe even [name_f]Lilah[/name_f].

4

[name_f]Lyla[/name_f] was one of our top choices. We chose this spelling because we have a [name_f]Lily[/name_f] AND a [name_f]Lilian[/name_f] in our family. Not only did both [name_f]Lila[/name_f] and [name_f]Lilah[/name_f] look similar to [name_f]Lily[/name_f] and [name_f]Lilian[/name_f] our family said it as [name_f]Lil[/name_f]-lah not Lye-lah when we had shown them those two spellings. They even said [name_f]Delilah[/name_f] as Dah-lil-lah. O.O I think it was due to them being so used to [name_f]Lily[/name_f]/[name_f]Lilian[/name_f]. When we said we were considering [name_f]Lyla[/name_f] and shown them how we were going to spell it they said it correctly as Lye-la.

5

I know a [name_f]Lilah[/name_f] and a [name_f]Lyla[/name_f]. Both are pronounced LYE-lah. I like [name_f]Lilah[/name_f] better just because I think it looks nicer. I think [name_f]Lyla[/name_f] has less chance of mispronunciation though. I wonder whether [name_f]Lila[/name_f] might be the most problematic, as I know a [name_f]Mila[/name_f] pronounced MEE-la (I assume this is the usual way to pronounce this?) so people might assume [name_f]Lila[/name_f] is pronounced the same way.

6

I personally like [name_f]Lila[/name_f], but as there may be too many mistakes with people calling her ‘lill-ah’ I would say [name_f]Lilah[/name_f] is a safer bet.

7

Those are definitely all well known as “Lie-Luh” yes. Any spelling is fine. I do like the common [name_f]Lila[/name_f] best.

8

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! It seems like [name_f]Lila[/name_f] is the simplest, but the least like to be pronounced correctly. I agree that [name_f]Lyla[/name_f] is the most phonetic, but I’m not a fan of it stylistically (I don’t like the “y” trend"). It sounds like [name_f]Lilah[/name_f] is a good compromise between the two! :slight_smile: Thanks again!