Malia or Alanna?

[TheMangoTree]

Due next week... appreciate opinions!

I love the name Malia, with the pronunciation MAHL-ia / Marlia, with the emphasis on the first syllable. It's a Swahili name and my husband has connections with Kenya, and it's also a variant of Mary and Maria, my mum and granny's names, so lots of personal reasons to choose it, but... I've learned that Malia is also the name of a tacky resort in Crete, where it's pronounced differently - MALia.

I had never heard of the resort, but will most other people see the name Malia written and instantly think of the place of debauchery?

What about spelling it Mahlia to avoid the association?

I also really like Alanna, which means 'my child' in Irish. I have Irish parents so I like that connection. Which do you prefer?

Thanks for much needed rational thoughts!

Sorry but Malia reminds me of the Crete resort - with an h would be better however Alanna is much nicer in my opinion!

Alaana is lovely.

Alanna even......! Love my phone...

Malia is also the name of one of the Obama girls, pronounced Mal-EE-ah.

Maybe try Amalia, though you would run into lots of people who pronounced it Amelia..

I prefer Alanna anyhow.

I'm afraid as soon as I saw it I thought of the resort - never been but saw a programme on tv this week about it, and it seems chavtastic to the max! I agree with NatashaBee too that if you spell it with the h, people might be likely to pronounce it as rhyming with dahlia. Sorry!

Alanna is lovely :)

Haven't heard of Malia, but it did remind me of the French word "mal" (bad) I'm afraid!

Alanna gets my vote!

Malia the island and the inbetweeners.

Thanks all! Really glad I asked as have managed to convince husband that this stuff does matter. Baby naming is one time when it would be selfish not to care what other people think!