Eila

[samsam1986]

Hi everyone! My first post on the site - but I've been reading lots of very useful info for a while now.

So, my girlfriend & I are expecting our first child this Summer, and if it's a girl, we're thinking about calling her Eila (pronounced I-La, just like Isla). The reason behind it is that I wanted to honour my late grandmother who was called Eileen, and whilst Eila isn't necessarily an official shortened version of Eileen, the pronunciation is similar, and it's also a little bit quirky, a bit different.

I just wanted to get some other peoples opinions on the name, as we can't really ask friends & family as we'd like it to be a surprise.

I would read that as ee-la.

Yeh, I thought some people might read it as "ee-la", although the "ei" should be read I suppose as "eye", like in Eileen.

Difficult this naming malarkey :)

It's an old-fashioned Finnish name pronounced "Eyla".

The "ei" blend is often pronounced "ay" as in vein, neighbour, weigh so I agree there would be confusion over pronunciation simply because it's an unusual name.
I first glanced at Eila written down and assumed it said Ella but maybe I need glasses!

It's lovely that you want a name in tribute to your grandmother though.

In Wales it would probably be pronounced Ay-la. I like it though, you'd just have to be prepared to correct people possibly.

It's a nice idea to try and incorporate a loved one's name, but I think you'll be forever correcting people. I can imagine anything from party invites to her passing on her email in a professional setting having to say "no, it's pronounced Isla but spelt Eila" and then still getting an email with Hi Isla...

Have you thought of picking a different first name and using Eileen as a middle name. Or Eila as a middle name? It does look pretty written down.

You could take some of the letters from Eileen to create a name? Ellen? Nellie? Elaine? Eleanor?

She will spend her life correcting peoples spelling and pronunciation of her name. If you call her Isla it's still sounds like Eileen but is spelt the standard way.

Is your name Sam? (Your user name suggests it is).

If so then be careful of the pronounciation of your daughters name as your girlfriend, and others, could refer to you and your daughter and it could sound like “Sam and Ella”.

My son is called Sam and I had to rule out Ella as a sibling name, which made me want it more....

You and she will spend her life saying it as you've written there, "Eila, pronounced I-la", or correcting pronunciations or spelling. Just give her Eileen as middle name?

I think either go for Isla or use Eileen as a middle name. Eila written down could be ee-la, ay-la, eye-la or be misread as Ella, and anyone who hears it before seeing it would think it was spelled Isla. Not worth the hassle I don't think, especially as it's not a standard alternative. People will think you were just trying to be unique.

One of the main reasons we're not wanting the more well known spelling, 'Isla', is that it's pretty common at the moment. Eila is a name in it's own right though, we've not made the spelling up to suit as such :), and we like that it's quite uncommon.

Would she be correcting people? Yeh, probably for new people she meets at first. It's a fair point.

We could of course use Eileen as a middle name, we've thought of that too, might be easier.

Just to throw in a total wild car how about 'Riley'? Sounds very similar to Eileen and is an uncommon name that's easy to spell. I think Riley is quite a cool girls name too.

*wild card... I shan't throw around a wild car that would be very irresponsible of me.

But spelling it differently doesn't make it less common. She will still have to be differentiated from the Islas in her class etc. She'll be known as 'E-Isla' or Eila surname..

I would pronounce it ay (as in say, day)-la.

I think it's actually very pretty and the spelling looks pretty, it just comes down to if you are both happy to explain the spelling to many people throughout her life, and she will have to explain it when old enough, but to be honest once you have told someone once how it's spelt and pronounced they shouldn't need to be told again 🙂 If you both love it, go for it! Baby couldn't be a boy and then you won't need to worry!

That's supposed to say baby could be boy!

Just to clarify, we're not spelling anything differently as such - it's a separate name to "Isla", a name in it's own right with a different origin. I mentioned Isla on my original post to help explain the correct pronunciation - apologies for the confusion.

Whether or not it's an actual name, it is way less common than Isla, so people will think you've deliberately avoided spelling it Isla to be different, not knowing the Eileen back story.

It's still pronounced exactly the same way so is effectively the same name - she'd still need to be differentiated from Islas at school/work etc.

Actually yes I just Googled. Eila has Hebrew origins, popular in Israel and pronounced "i-la" It means Oak Tree.

I suppose it's similar to being called Claire/ Clare where you continually have to spell the name for people, although there might be more people reading Eila and mispronouncing it or hearing it and assuming Isla.

I read it as Ella and read the whole OP wondering why tf you would pronounce that like Isla.

Then I realised it's Eila and I would pronounce that as Ay-luh.

I wouldn't use it. She'll be forever correcting people. I would use Eileen as a middle name.

It's a separate name but it's pronounced the same as a common name. So you will have the issues of having a common name-there could be several in class/work, known by Eila surname, or a descriptor, or nickname. AND all the issues of an uncommon name-spelling it out, correcting pronunciation etc. It's a pretty name and you sound like you love it though.

If you decided you wanted something with the same root but that didn't sound like another name there's some lovely ones on babynamespedia if you search with the beginning 'Eil'. Nice meanings too, something about birds and juniper trees -

Eilena - I imagine pronounced eye-lay-na?
Eilina - eye-lee-na?
Eilyn - love this one