Names Laika & Alaska?

[MamaTo7]

Thoughts on names Laika or Alaska?

I prefer Alaska over Eliska. Laika is beautiful in my opinion, my only worry would be it being pronounced Lay-ka. X

Your suggestion of Saskia is very nice. Or Alexandra nickname Sasha.

Alaska is one of those names which hasn't made the jump from place name to person name, barring one young adult novel (but then young adult novels are pretty famous for unusual character names).

Laika I think would have pronunciation difficulties, or space dog implications. I did immediately think Lake-ah and then I thought of the
Russian dog. Which corrected my pronunciation but wasn't a great association.

OP Don't want to quibble too much but SFAIK the meaning of Penelope is disputed. Some say it is linked to weaving, others say it might refer to a brightly-coloured bird. www.etymonline.com/word/penelope
Leah perhaps means 'weary' or more probably 'cow' - a valuable possession in early farming societies, where the name originated. Again, SFAIK Mary/Miriam means 'bitter'.
Emily comes from the Roman family Aemilia, one of the oldest and grandest in Rome, who claimed descent from kings. The family name did originally mean rival but also had the sense of 'striving to do better'. It's where the modern word 'emulate' comes from. The personal names Emil/Emily as we know it reference this - surely not a bad thing?- but also the grand noble Romans and their achievements.

To concur with everyone's Laika comments, it is not only the name of that one famous dog but generally a very common dog name in the soviet union countries. Wouldn't call my child that name. I also believe it means a dog that barks...or something like that. :/