Lena, Sara or Aya

[AmalFish]

Hello,
We are looking for a simple but elegant baby girl name- which one of these do people like?
Thanks!

my grandmother was a Lena (lee-na). It was short for Ellen.

I’m assuming Arab/Muslim heritage OP?

Aya is lovely of faith is important to you given its meaning of a verse in the Quaran - or miracle.

Lena would be my choice. Assuming Lee-na pronunciation.

Lena is my favourite.

For others
It's LEE-na
AY(as in hay)- ah
SAra (as in Zara)

But of course in the west everyone gets used to lots of pronunciations :)

I don’t like any of them. None have an obvious pronunciation and they seem like they’re borrowed from another culture?

The only people I know IRL with those names or similar are Lebanese (apologies if you are actually Lebanese, OP!)

I strongly advise against Sara. It's setting someone up for a lifetime of being called the wrong name.

It's a close relative's name and it used to drive her absolutely round the bend being called the wrong name. When she got married, she changed the spelling of her first name to avoid it because it was genuinely that bad. She goes by Sera now.

Love Aya!

They're Arab names, and OPs username would imply she is Arab.

Plenty of people grow up with these names in the west. Thankfully the next generations don't make nearly as much of a fuss about difficulties with pronunciation as did gen X and boomers!

@Yazzi , the only one that's Arab is Aya.

Just because a name like Sara might have Hebrew roots in Sarah (I assume), it doesn’t mean it can’t also be an Arabic name. Lena and Sara are both very popular in Arab and Muslim communities.

Like the PP, I also assumed an Arab heritage due to these three names as well as the username.

Just because a name like Sara might have Hebrew roots in Sarah (I assume), it doesn’t mean it can’t also be an Arabic name. I didn't say it couldn't be used as a girl's name by anyone.

I’d say Lena. I would only know to pronounce it Lee-na.

Don’t know how to say Aya (eye-a?) In which case, PPs have a point about ‘hiya’

Sara is nice but i agree she will always be asked ‘is it sara or sarah’

That's incorrect. All three names are very common Arab names currently and through history. All three are mentioned in the Quran (though there are non Muslim Arabs who have these names).

If I said "Elizabeth is a common English name" would you quibble that it's originally Hebrew?

I actually said it’s also an Arab name, in response to you saying only Aya is.

How about Anya?

Sara to my knowledge does not appear in the Quran. Lina does but not as a name of a person.