In general, I’m not a fan of quirky spellings, but for this name, it’s hard to find an alternative. The classic [name]Alicia[/name] runs of the risk of being pronounced Uh-leash-uh, when we’re aiming for Uh-lease- e - uh. I also just don’t like the way [name]Alicia[/name] looks. What do you think of the name and the proposed spelling? Any other suggestions?
What about [name]Elysia[/name]? Plug it into the “check out a name” box.
I would spell it [name]Alessia[/name] to get the pronunciation you want.
(I think Alleysia still runs the rish of being pronounced [name]Alesha[/name] and the y makes it look like a made-up name).
I understand your dilemma, as I am not a big fan of the spelling of [name]Alicia[/name], however I would have to agree with simplelife - [name]Elysia[/name] is a beautiful name with such a wonderful meaning, won’t produce as many spelling issues and is not made up.
[name]Alessia[/name], [name]Alyssia[/name], [name]Elysia[/name], Aleasia, Aleesia, [name]Alisia[/name]
I happen to like [name]Alicia[/name], but that’s not important I guess.
If you are going for Uh-lee-see-ah, for one matter, spelling a name trying to get it phonetically as close to how you want people to automatically pronounce it will [name]WILL[/name] work against you. They’ve never seen the name before, they will mangle it. The ALL part of the name might sound like -all- or it might sound like [name]AL[/name]. The EY part of the name might be EE or AY or even EYE. SIA is very often See-ah, but by the end of trying to pronounce the first part, they are bound to give up trying.
It helps that you are looking for the right name, have already eliminated the spelling [name]Alicia[/name], and aren’t really married to this spelling, or alt spellings in general. [name]Alicia[/name] gets pronounce A-lish-a, A-leesh-a, and A-liss-ee-a, or A-lee-see-a by personal preference. Fortunately, this name is one which has variations, not necessarily based on the same root, [name]Alice[/name].
Be prepared for names that begin with [name]Al[/name], for some people to enunciate the A like in [name]Alice[/name], for names that start with [name]El[/name], for people to enunciate the E like in [name]Eloise[/name].
[name]Elisa[/name] is one but you don’t get the -i-a.
[name]Elysia[/name] would probably suit your needs. Some people will read it as a variation of [name]Alicia[/name] and still say it the way you dislike - but in this case, they would be definitely wrong, where in [name]Alicia[/name], they might be guessing right (for a parent who prefers that ‘sha’ sound to the see-ah sound). The benefit of [name]Elysia[/name] is that it is a real name, and it has the correct pronunciation. The disadvantage is that some people will still think it’s too odd and mispronounce it. It is not related to [name]Alicia[/name] at all, but some people, I think would still think it is an alt-spelled variation and consider all the pronunciations of [name]Alicia[/name] to be correct.
I have two minds to this: I don’t like “dumbing down” to the general public, spelling a name so they pronounce it right, or choosing the easy way out. So they’ve never seen or heard of an [name]Elysia[/name] - that is no reason to avoid it, on (my) principle.
The other way is to just spell it [name]Alicia[/name] and correct people, they will get it. Some may take longer, but you know what’s what. I might have more of a laid-back response than most; it wouldn’t annoy me if someone said it wrong, if I had to correct them, and they still say it wrong.
It has happened to my last name all my life. If someone asks me for “help” with it (before making a fool of themselves, I guess), or I introduce myself, I know how it’s pronounced. 99% of the time, they ask first or guess wrong, and 99% of the time, they don’t get it wrong again.
^ This little anecdote can apply to either [name]Elysia[/name] or [name]Alicia[/name], or any other valid spelling you can find.
I think [name]Alessia[/name] is very pretty but to me its pronounced [name]Ah[/name]-less-ee-ah (if that makes sense).
Thanks for all the suggestions! The more I look at it, the more I dislike Alleysia. I do like the option of [name]Elysia[/name], even though I initially erred away from anything looking like [name]Elise[/name]- reminds me of a dreadful college roommate. But I think [name]Elysia[/name] is a pretty name, pretty spelling. I love the nn [name]Ellie[/name] too, and I guess that could work with the name too.
If it helps, [name]Elysia[/name] is not a variation of [name]Elizabeth[/name], which [name]Elise[/name] is. Good choice!