Aliona?

[Justanothermum1510]

I’m still early on in my pregnancy but I’m loving the name Aliona if the baby is a girl at the moment (we won’t be finding out the gender). What do you think?

I prefer Eliana (Elly arna) which is similar.

Where is the 'r' in Eliana?

I do quite like it.

I prefer Eliana (Elly arna) which is similar.

I also don't understand the added R?

It's Eliana, not Eliarna!

The “ar” is to indicate that it’s a long a rather than a short one in a non-rhotic accent. Like the Southern English pronounciation of bath. It’s a perfectly reasonable way of representing it for people whose accents don’t pronounce r - for example in my accent “bah” as in “Bah, humbug!” sounds exactly like “bar” where you’d go to buy a drink.

Anyway, I think Aliona is a great name, but then she was always my favourite dancer on Strictly Come Dancing - which is the most likely reference point for most Brits. Once you’ve said it once it’s pretty intuitive how to spell and say it for an Anglophone. (Unlike Aljaz for example which always catches me out on Strictly threads even though it’s so short).

I like it - I have a friend with that name, although hers is spelt with a 'y'. As a pp said, it's popular in Russian-speaking countries.

Although.
Despite saying that it’s a reasonable way of representing the long a when non-rhotic speakers are communicating with each other, it’s best avoided on MN because people with other accents always get (understandably) confused.

Never heard of it before and don’t like it. I also thought of Alioli!

(By which I do mean “alioli“ - the Spanish garlic dressing, not ”aioli”, the French one.)

I, like others prefer Ilona, Eliana or Leona

I like it!

I have an Italian friend called Iliana (Illy-arna, yes, definitely pronounced 'arna') and I think that's a beautiful name too.

Similar but less like Alioli.

No Italian would pronounce Iliana as Iliarna! There's no R in it. It's pronounced Ill ee ah na.

See my note above Pippi

@Pippilangstrumpfi I think transcription "ar" here means how to pronounce "a" like in French or Italian and not "a" like first letter of English alphabet, as Brits don't pronounce "r"

as Brits don't pronounce "r"

Yes they flipping do! Well some of us do; others don't.
I think you mean non-rhotic Brits, rather than Brits.

Yes, but then why isn't a word like Tomato spelled Tomarto?

Because it’s an anglicised version of a Spanish word adopted from the Aztecs.

Yes I hate when british people who don't pronounce their Rs put an r in to a word to demonstrate its pronunciation!

Avocado, tomato, bravado etc are examples of words with a long A sound without the need for an added R

Illiana is definitely not pronounced illiarna with an R!

I like Aliona (but not pronounced Aliorna )

@MonsteraDeliciosa yes that's what I meant:) I love a proper rrrr

Sounds like garlic mayo to me!

Ah, yes, classic examples of English pronunciation there Grufallo.

Sounds very much like Areola
I thought this thread had been started as a wind up originally as I thought it actually was asking for opinions on Areola!
Wouldn’t use this name. Aria or Aurora or Aurelia are nice !

Iknow an Aliona she is an adult and Russian. I like the name.