Is Eliahna trendy and overused?

The ‘h’ would make me want to pronounce it El-eye-arna with the emphasis on the middle ‘eye’ syllable which isn’t what you are going for.
I know 3, eldest is 22, the others are under 10. Both spelt Eliana

Is it pronounced Ellie-Anna or Ellie-Arna?

With the ‘h’ makes me think the latter?

Can’t stand it. Eleanor is a lovely elegant name

Haha little bit rude! I can assure you I’m not quite thick 🤣

The ahna ending is not one that is really used much, it looks pretty unusual and there aren’t many other names ending like that. And it has a variety of perfectly sensible spellings that can be used instead. I really don’t think it makes things easier!

El- is a trend in girls’ names that has been going since at least 2010. So yes, it’s trendy rather than timeless.

I think Eliana is a beautiful name. I think adding the h is condemning her to a lifetime of her name being misspelt.

I'm going to disagree with previous posters. I feel like the pronunciation is obvious with the Eliahna spelling. It's very straightforward. To be blunt, I would think someone was quite thick if they were an English speaker and couldn't figure it out. I can understand people struggling to remember how to spell it but not to pronounce it.

I really don’t think the h makes pronunciation easier - it turns it into a name practically nobody has seen before and people will hesitate over how to say it. Now you’ve explained I can see what your DH was trying to do, but I tried a few times to figure out what it was and was sort of stopping on the h - like Ellie - <short ah> - nah. It’s just confusing. Go with Eliana if you like it.

If you don't like Ellie, don't do it. Doesn't matter what you want, that's what people will call her (there's lots of variants in my kids' classes, Elle, Ellen, Eleanor Elana, Eloise and guess what every single one goes by at school).

I didn't get what OP was saying but I get what you're saying.

I automatically pronounced it 'Elly-arna' when I read it. But that's the problem with a made up name - people don't know how it's pronounced.

OP, call your kid whatever you want but remember you're not the poor sod living with a made up name.

I've never heard of it, and I'm a teacher who teaches 180+ different kids every year. Definitely not overused (or used) in my neck of the woods.

Why have you put a random h in it?

For what it's worth, Eliana is now top ten in the USA and has pretty rapidly climbed (was #102 in 2015). The ones I have known have been from Spanish-speaking families and "Ellie" as a short form doesn't really match the Spanish language pronunciation (something like Ayl-YAHN-ah) but I think the typical English pronunciation follows the original Hebrew ( אליענה) and is more like Eh-lee-ah-nah - so might be shortened to Ellie, Elle, or Ella. Liana could also work with that pronunciation.

Eliahna apparently is used in the USA but rarely, and in that context it appears to be a way to force the four syllable pronunciation without having to use the í (Elíana), so I'd avoid the alternate spelling unless you're honouring someone with that exact name.

The spelling is stupid. Eliana is perfectly nice and not overused.

The H is truly dreadful. It’s not trendy or overused, it’s just wrong.

I’ll explain. PP meant it sounds like someone has sat down and come up with a series of letters to make a name.

It’s just a sort of feminine noise to me. Like serelina or ariania or tiritania or everianialina or Mirilianiarina. Same sort of syllables. Just another Ellie but over complicated. Do drop the H though if you love it.

Overused? I’ve never even heard of it.

The spelling is silly. Don’t inflict a name no one will be able to spell on a child. The H in there is just pointless. And it will get shortened to Ellie. And every other young woman is called Ellie. (OK it feels like that to me as my sons know so many)

The spelling is awful. Please spell it Eliana.

Never heard of it. Difficult to spell & pronounce

Agree spelling terrible, doesn't really give a clue to the pronunciation either. I read it as ee-lie rather than el-ee, like the name Eli rather than Ellie. And also, even if you don't like Ellie, it's likely she will be called Ellie by everyone else, or at least El. And will quite likely then ask you to call her that too as she grows up. So if you don't want an Ellie, it's probably not a great choice. How about Liana instead? It's probably less likely to be shortened as it's a less cumbersome name than Eliana, though you might end up with a Lee or a Lana.

It's fine if you drop the h.

Why on earth would you spell it like that? Makes it unpronounceable.

Unfortunately, this tragedy was also my first thought when I read the thread title, and I live in Wales. We're inundated with American news.

She will be forever spelling it and correcting people. DS has an Irish name which he likes, but in Starbucks or wherever he just says his name is Fred.

It’s an ugly spelling, I’d do a double take if I saw it written down. I’m sure that of all the names available you could find something much nicer.