Love the name hate the spelling

If there's an 'r' in it, a lot of people (me included) are going to pronounce that 'r' which is not what op wants.

How about Arleia

that long ahhhh at the start of the name would irritate me. Just say alleeya

This thread is fascinating and hilarious. I think you've got there in the end OP - don't use the R to denote a long A sound, you'll just confuse those with rhotic accents (me included).

As a pp said, just use Aalia or Ahlia. Both nudge the A sound longer than in Alia, but still look simple and a bit fresher than the original spellings, which I think is what you're after?

I think Ahlia is the best option. It should get the right pronunciation with the majority of people and looks more natural somehow than Arlia. Arlia just doesn't look like a name - more like a company.

I'm Scottish, all the people I know called Alia/Aliyah/Aaliyah/Aleeah are ah-lee-ah. No R to be heard. If I was corrected I'd probably just think it was an accent thing and continue pronouncing it without the R to be honest. I teach an Oscar with English parents, he says "Os-cah" but in everyone else's accent it's Os-car with an R at the end. If I pronounced it like him I'd feel like I was mimicking his accent. If you want an R I think you need to include one.

I live in the ME & know lots of Aaliyahs, Alyas & Alias.

I'd say Alia/Alya is generally seen as the younger, trendier spelling. I've also mostly come across preferences for a short, sharp A sound, so it's like the equivalent boys' name, Ali/Aly with an added A.

The only young girl I know with a long A sound spells her name Aalia, so I'd go with that.

Personally I really like it - the pronunciation is fairly obvious with Aa, & somehow it just looks less 'fussy' than Aaliyah. Which is also a lovely name, but the 'y' & 'h' seem a bit superfluous to me, written down!

Honestly people will get used to whatever, though. Dd1 has a name with several different spellings & at least two pronunciations. I thought the way I spelled it made the English pronunciation I liked clear, but nope, people try out the American version first more often than not. She just politely corrects them if it's, say, a teacher she'll see quite a lot of, & doesn't bother if it's a one off encounter. Oddly it's a very similar name to the one you like...just a couple of extra letters .

For anyone who needs to hear the Arabic pronunciation of the first letter ...

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Voiced_pharyngeal_fricative.ogg

The Irish word Áille doesn't give the lee-yah part of the name the OP wants though, AuntDympna.

Would Allia work maybe?

Jarmilah? You’ve met a child called Jarmilah @AuntDympna?

Solved it for you!

Spell it in Arabic:

عَلِيَّة

Alternatively, in Irish:

Áille - which means "beauty"‎

Seriously though I have noticed that a lot of people are using "ar" to signify long a sound in names which previously were spelled without r. So Farzia instead of Fazia, Jarmilah instead of Jamilah, and so on.

So the word I think will help here is gnarly.

You want (I think) the name to rhyme and have the same syllable emphasis as "gnarlier". As in more gnarly.

Is that right?

I'm Northern Irish and would definitely proniunce the r in Arlia. I can't get my head around how you are actually wanting it pronounced... maybe you could add a voice clip of you saying the name and then we can all write how we think it would be spelt in our accents

My friend’s name is pronounced like that and it’s spelled Alia

I think no matter what way you spell it, you're going to find someone who pronounces it differently. People have mentioned Aaliyah but I know an Aaliyah who pronounces her name uh-LEE-uh, not AH-lee-uh.

You could spell it Arlia if you want, but keep in mind if she ever moves to another country like Ireland, USA, Canada or most of Europe (or spends a lot of time interacting with people from those countries), they absolutely will vocalise the R sound. I'm Irish so it took me a while to get my head around what you're asking, since "are" and "ah" are completely different sounds to me.

I would just spell it Aaliyah, it’s the recognised spelling of the name and I can’t see how anyone could mispronounce it.

@Geezabreak82 OP doesn't want the R sound. It's just to her accent that's how you would stress a long A.

Aaliyah/Aliya/ Aliyah are not the same as Arlia to my ear. Neither is Ahlia. If you want the 'r' sound in I think you need the 'r' in the name. I'm in Scotland though and it sounds like others don't hear a difference between aliya and arlia. My parents made up the spelling and pronunciation of my name and honestly it's been an ongoing pain in the neck.

There's a beautiful sculpture near me called Arria. Would you consider that as an option? It's named after the mother of a famous Roman I believe. www.andyscottsculptor.com/sculptures/arria

I'd listen to the teachers and keep it simple, Aalia, or even Alia.

Also separates it from the Arabic name - the beginning sound represented as a long A in English is actually a consonant in Arabic that doesn't have an equivalent in English. So Ali/Aaliyah are perpetually mispronounced by non Arabic speakers!

Alia is a nice name but you CANNOT spell it Arlia. It looks like a milk brand or similar and it looks like you are completely illiterate.

Aahleah. Aaleeyah. Ahlea, Aaleah. Aalear. Aahliyah.

Aaliyah would be the best conventional spelling, as it’s actually a recognisable name. I’d guess it’s perhaps a little more common to emphasise the second syllable, but I’ve met plenty who emphasise the first.

Aria is also an actual name, very nice, and easy to spell and pronounce. As is Daria, Taliah and Natalia. Would you consider Natalia, and using Alia as a nickname?