Need HELP/opinion with baby name (girl)

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2007
Need HELP/opinion with baby name (girl)
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Sun, 04-22-2007 - 11:05am
So I'm due May 27th & for about the past 4 months we decided to go with the name Amiah only we had troubles figuring out how to spell it so that it wouldn't be hard to pronounce or too confusing. We first tried Amaiah, which I liked but my dad being an English teacher LOL kept saying its going to get mispronounced and its not "phonetically" correct. Everyone and their neighbor has put in two cents about this name. No one has said they don't like it only how the spelling should or shouldn't be. It is pronounced A-MY-A NOT A-ME-A or A-MAY-A..Basically I'm now at an indecisive stage of my pregnancy where my hormones are out of whack and I could cry at anything and last night it all came to a head because my family was teasing and yeah I think they like the name its just oh the spelling...and mocking it and so then out of left field my husband says I kind of like the name Colby. I was going Oh my gosh where is this coming from. Here I'm supposed to be excited and don't get me wrong I'm thrilled about this baby, but why is naming her taking so hard? We have a 9 year old son and we were told that we might have a rough time having another one and we honestly after years of trying were shocked to find out I was pregnant with her, maybe that is why everything has to be SOOO perfect she is like a little miracle baby. I just was curious what other people out there think besides family people in the public that see her name if they could pronounce it spelled Amiah or if anyone has other ideas as to which was would be easiest to pronunciate there are so many variations like Amyah (which looks like Amy to me) or Amaya I didn't know about all the a's. My son's name starts with a C i think that is why my husband was throwing out Colby our last name starts with a C as well. We got home last night and my husband says I was just messing with you I do like the name Amiah - and I keep thinking in the back of my mind if I go with Amiah will I regret it because of the hassle with pronunciation OR if I change it will I wish I would've stuck with Amiah? The middle name is Marie after my husbands deceased mother. Please if anyone can help I'd appreciate it, I want something kind of different rather than popular or common as my son's name is unique. Thank you!!!!!! :)

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-14-2007
Sun, 04-22-2007 - 8:35pm

I understand the spelling Amiah as A-my-uh (I really love the name Abiah) and I think it's both pretty and a sensible spelling (since many biblical names end with -iah and have a similar pronunciation--I know a boy named Jeremiah who goes by Miah). BUT, I also think that Amaiah is beautiful (definitely doesn't have too many As) and will be pronounced correctly most of the time. After all, Maia/Maya is a very popular name right now (pronounced my-uh).

People will mispell and mispronounce any name you choose. (My name is Rebecca (nn Becky), and people mispell both all of the time!) It also seems as though families frequently object to any name that they didn't grow up hearing, and predict all sorts of doom and gloom for the child--reason enough to stick your fingers in your ears and go "la-la-la-la" when they begin to talk about her name.

Congratulations on your lovely surprise arrival, and don't second guess yourself. Amaiah Marie is going to love her name!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-06-2007
Sun, 04-22-2007 - 9:48pm

Were it me I would go with Amaya. I've never heard of Maya pronounced any other way that MY-ah so it looks perfect to me.


GL!











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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-29-2005
Sun, 04-22-2007 - 10:25pm

I thought I'd mentioned this in my original post, but now that I actually have a chance to read through the responses I see I didn't. ;)


Besides the phonetics your father mentioned, the -aiah ending you liked for the "Amaiah" spelling IS familiar to most people ... in the form of Isaiah and less common names like Benaiah and Micaiah. All pronounced with AY-a endings. So while I don't get the "too many As comment" (after all, the real, traditional Amaia/Amaya has just as many LOL), I can definitely see why choosing to tack the H onto the end would confuse most people. Maia/Maya is familiar. Isaiah is familiar. People definitely use names like these as points of reference when they come across something that isn't phonetically obvious, so I'd assume "Amaiah" will get a-MAY-a -- to rhyme with ie-ZAY-a -- nearly 100% of the time.


Just something to keep in mind if you hadn't realized, though I know you've already abandoned that spelling for those same reasons (confusing and not phonetically "correct" ). Still, thought it worth mentioning to make you feel better about that, at the very least. ;)


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Mon, 04-23-2007 - 1:52am

I like the Amaiah spelling the best of all that have been mentioned in this thread.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2007
Mon, 04-23-2007 - 11:42am
I think after all this we are going to stick with Amaiah as the spelling. We have gone back and forth on it any spelling could be misconstrued - judging by responses. My husband and I decided that since this is how we've spelled it for a couple months now to change it would be really hard and probably something we'd regret if we change it. Thank you all for your advice & opinions...I'm sure that some will like what we picked and some may not. But we do and hopefully little Amaiah will too! :)

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