Hanna or Lea

Every time I give my surname I have to spell it out (well, unless I give it to Poles who don't need it spelling but always want to know why I am using the masculine rather than feminine form of it) and I have to spell the dc's first names out carefully every time, but it doesn't blight my life at all- or theirs. They are proud of their names and would rather put up with the slight inconvenience of correcting people's spelling than not have names that reflect their heritage.

Hanna is better.
Lea is more likely to be mispronounced.

Now Leandra is gorgeous and not very common.

Hanna is lovely and there would be no confusion about pronunciation. No extra H required.
Leah doesn’t appeal as much but if you love it.........Also with Lea I am reminded of Dairylea and Meadowlea dairy products .... Lea is the old English word for meadow or grassy area.
Alternative spelling would be Lia

I'm guessing Lea is pronounced as Léa? Same as actress Léa Seydoux. I really do love that name however you can't really use the accent in an English speaking country to help with pronunciation, people will always spell it with an H at the end and they'll hardly pronounce it right on the first try. It is a beautiful name though. Simple but classy.

Why choose ? Call her Leanna or Léandra 😉

I think most pronunciations only have to be explained once anyway. And if the spellings are from your culture, most people will understand. For example I have a friend Stefanie. It just looks and feels normal to me, because of her Polish heritage, even though the English spelling would be Stephanie. That’s just her name and how it’s spelled. Stephanie looks weird.
Go with what you love. Once it’s her name, it will be her name. Easy to overthink these things.

Lea can also be spelled Lia without sounding like Lee

Neither

I know a Hanna, in England too! She has previously explained the spelling as 'Hannah without the H', only to be presented with a Face of Confusion as the person she was explaining to went 'You mean Annah?'

My sister was called Leah for the first 4 days of her life, so I quite like that one too!

Hanna(h).

They're both lovely, but Hanna is my favourite.

Ignore the rude spelling comments. English spellings aren't compulsory in the UK. Lots of people here come from different cultures and reflect this in their children's names. I know a Rúben and a Wiktoria for example.

Also, there are four nations in the UK, not just England. There are lots of people with Scottish, Welsh and Irish names. The Cornish have some fabulous names too! Come to Wales and you'll find people called Tomos, Alys, Harri, Lili, Efa and Nansi rather than Thomas, Alice, Harry, Lily, Eva and Nancy.

My own name is Welsh (I've always lived in England). Trust me, Hanna and Lea are much more straightforward than my name, and most of the names on my list too It'll be fine, reflect your heritage OP.

Love Lea!!!

I like Hanna,but I'm biased as I have one(with a h) and there hasn't been another in either nursery,primary or secondary so far so not too popular

Love Hanna, my friend is spelled like that and she loves it, she doesn’t get confused with other Hannah’s with the same name, there were three Hannah’s in the class, on work she could just put Hanna but they had to put initials. There’s noting wrong with that spelling (coming from someone with a name spelt the non-traditional way who also loves it)

Yes but op is living in London I think where an h here or there really won't matter. I mean they are not specifically 'English' names they're biblical/international

believe the Hanna spelling is fairly usual. I have certainly met one or two and even a Lea when I was a kid and I am no spring chicken.

Slight spelling variation really isn't an issue .

Just put the H on ffs.

Leah you will always be correcting pronunciation.

They are both lovely names and spell them how you like. Some of the comments here are ridiculous.

I'm a Leah with a sister Hannah. Great name taste OP like a PP, I have always had to correct the pronunciation of my name. It's very common to get Lee or Lay-ah like the star wars princess. So personally I wouldn't use Lea as the problem would be exacerbated. I think Hanna is much harder to mispronounce but if you're in England, it would have to spelled out every time. But you would avoid the "OMG, did you know that your name is a pallendrome" that my sister used to get all the time, particularly when her year group studied pallendromes in English!

Hanna rather than Lea. Think Lea will get mispronounced- it's not obvious if you mean Lee or Leah.

I love Lea. It's a really pretty but strong name. People might mispronounce it occasionally, but the people who know her will pronounce it correctly.