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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Amya or Deena or Liyana

36 replies

Libertyy · 30/12/2023 12:00

Any ideas

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MerryChristmasToYou · 30/12/2023 12:17

How are they pronounced and are they from a certain religion/culture?

SleepingStandingUp · 30/12/2023 12:47

Where do you live?

Amya sounds like slang for are you. Amya gooin out t play?

Deena just sounds very dated to me

Liyana I like, not sure it's it's lee-anna, lee-arna, lie-anna, lie-arna etc though so depends how much you care about mispronunciation

Onelife2024 · 30/12/2023 13:00

Amya and Liyana are not names I’m familiar with, but I really like Liyana. Amya is nice but might get confused with Anya, if that bothers you. Not so keen on Deena.

MerryChristmasToYou · 30/12/2023 13:12

Deena and Liyana seem to close to Deana and Leanne, which seem like 1970s names. Amya looks like Amy with an a on the end, and Amy is a bit 1980s.
If it's Am-eye-a, it will blend into the Mya, Maya, Maia, Mila, Amaya type names.

If they are culture-specific, then my opinion might be different.

Libertyy · 30/12/2023 13:40

They’re culturally specific for an Asian family

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Libertyy · 30/12/2023 13:41

Amya is pronounced “am-maya”
Liyana is pronounced lee-ah-na
Deena - dee-nah

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LikeItOrLumpIts · 30/12/2023 13:49

Will Amya really get pronounced as Am-Mya though to people that don’t know? As to be honest it’s like Anya but with an M. Am-ya.

It doesn’t read Am Mya. To be honest there are so many Mayas and Maias.

Deena seems very 80s.

user1492757084 · 30/12/2023 14:00

How about ..
Amy
Maya
Deirdre
Leah

MerryChristmasToYou · 30/12/2023 14:02

I'd spell Amya as Amaya to avoid Aim-y-a/Am-ya confusion. Amaya, Anaya and Alaya seem to be everywhere here and it's the name of a neighbour's child.'Anaya, Anaya, Anaya' all day long by her younger sibling is very annoying and I call them Anaya and Annoyer.
(not sure if she's Anaya or Amaya but Annoyer has a very loud voice)

Liyana would look better as Liana but that's a jungle plant. Liyana is too vowelly for me and would blend into all the Lily, Layla, Lila, Luna, Lyla type names.

Deena seems a bit dated but seems stronger than the vowelly names.

WeightoftheWorld · 30/12/2023 14:07

I like Deena best but don't mind Liyana. Not keen on the first purely cos I still don't really understand how to pronounce it after you've explained and I don't feel your pronunciation that you gave matches the spelling either.

I have middle eastern heritage and my two DC have Arabic names for some cultural context. The only name out of the three you've given I've heard of is Deena, but usually seen it spelled Dina (although on reflection that looks a bit like 'dinner' if you don't know the name!).

Guineapiggiesmalls · 30/12/2023 14:10

Love Amya, very nice. Without knowing, I’d have pronounced that Amyah, like Anya with an M really.

MerryChristmasToYou · 30/12/2023 14:21

@WeightoftheWorld . I think she says Amya as Am-eye-ah.

tsmainsqueeze · 30/12/2023 14:22

None of them, so many much nicer names to choose from.

Libertyy · 30/12/2023 14:27

LikeItOrLumpIts · 30/12/2023 13:49

Will Amya really get pronounced as Am-Mya though to people that don’t know? As to be honest it’s like Anya but with an M. Am-ya.

It doesn’t read Am Mya. To be honest there are so many Mayas and Maias.

Deena seems very 80s.

I know an Amyma that gets pronounced as “amayma” so I’m sure Amya will be pronounced okay. But I could settle with Amaya or Anaya

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Libertyy · 30/12/2023 14:28

tsmainsqueeze · 30/12/2023 14:22

None of them, so many much nicer names to choose from.

Like what? What about Inaayah or Anaya? Or Humaira?

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BabyYoshke · 30/12/2023 14:29

Amaya is a lovely name but I’d stick an extra A in there.

Libertyy · 30/12/2023 14:29

I like Ameera and Alaina too

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Libertyy · 30/12/2023 14:30

BabyYoshke · 30/12/2023 14:29

Amaya is a lovely name but I’d stick an extra A in there.

So Amaaya, Aamaya or Amayah?

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muddyford · 30/12/2023 14:32

None of them.

halfmice · 30/12/2023 14:34

Ameera/Amira is pretty!

@Libertyy no, the PP means Amaya as it’s written there rather than Amya.

Love Deena too. Easy to spell and say.

Christmasisover · 30/12/2023 14:35

I like Deena. People spelling and pronouncing names wrong is my pet peeve so Deena would be my name of choice out of the three 🙈

BoohooWoohoo · 30/12/2023 14:35

Amaya will be be most likely to be pronounced correctly by a person from the UK. Amya looks like Anya with a m so will be pronounced Am-yah

Liyana sounds more modern that Deena because of the English name Dina is quite an old person’s name compared to Liana which sounds younger to me. Of course you should spell it to your cultural norm but Liyana would be pronounced like you want to.

theduchessofspork · 30/12/2023 14:38

If there’s an option to spell Amya in a more phonetic way, I’d go for that

Liyana and Deena do sound a bit low rent 70s in a UK context, but they are more phonetic. Liyana is the better of the two.

OpalOrchid · 30/12/2023 14:43

I like Amya and there's no need to spell it any different just so it's easier for people who are too stupid to learn how to pronounce Asian names.

MerryChristmasToYou · 30/12/2023 15:09

@OpalOrchid , I'd rather have a name that people didn't have to learn that it was Asian or how to say it. There are god knows how many asian languages.

I've only seen Mya, Anya and Amaya, Anaya, Alaya as similar names. All on asian heritage children, but not from the same cultural/religious backgrounds.
But you probably think I am 'stupid'.