Do you like Ilona?

[goomum]

Do you like Ilona? Which pronounciation is better IH-LONA
or EYE-LONA?

I like Ilana better

I know (or used to know) an Ilona. She lived next door when I was younger. It was pronounced Ih-lona

In fact, I've never heard of anyone else called it

am not that keen sorry although the only one I knew was lovely

I prefer Iona. Like the island.

It's OK.. prefer Leona or Iona.

I prefer Iona

I knew an Ilona (ih-lona) too and always thought it was a lovely name. Much less popular the moment than Iona.

I refere Iona too, on my shortlist for baby #2

prefer even

not keen on Ilona but really like iona

Like Iona better... my daughter is Isla.. similar name

I like it. Would pronounce it IH-lona.

It's meant to be prounounced EE-LOW-NEH

we have an ih-lona in ds1's class. she's very lovely.
we used to live in renfrewshire and there were a fair few ionas.

never heard it pronounced eye-lona but it might be a cultural thing.

i like ilona.

Was at Uni with an Ilona but think she was Illona - and called herself Lo. I really like it though.

Great name. One of my friends is an IH-lona. She's great. Go for it.

I am called Ilona after my Hungarian grandmother - my father (also Hungarian) pronounces it IH-lona and will not accept it said any other way!! I dislike it said as Eye-lona and much prefer the other way. It was the bane of my life at school - I was forever correcting teachers on how to say it and once got detention for doing so. I also had one teacher who insisted on calling me Fiona. Now I'm older I like it - it's different and I must admit I've never met anyone else with the name. Lots of people think it's a mis-spelling of Iona tho!

yes, it's a lovely traditional Hungarian name. But if you want to say and use it "properly", make sure the stress is on the first syllable (and keep the 'Ih' sound very very short), and you don't elongate the 'O' sound in the second syllable either!

yes mrsnoname - you're quite right, the 'o' sound in the second syllable has to be short as in 'orange' NOT as in 'oh'.
So goomum - what do you think about the name now?

My friends dd is ilona, she is dutch she gets called lony.

It looks like I loner (I'm a loner) it's a bit meh.
Iona is just a 2000s take on Fiona, which was popular in my day too.