Urgent name help! Talia or Yael

[naomi01]

Hi,

We ended up having our new baby daughter a few days earlier than our scheduled C-section and my husband and I seem stalled about her name. We are jewish and looking for traditional but unusual jewish names but are wondering how the general population will pronounce them. Our daughter is 6 days old so we need to decide QUICK!

Our top two first names are "Talia" and "Yael".

Talia - we had a near miss this afternoon when we realized that all along my husband had been imagining it spelled Talya, and I thought of it as Talia. We both would say it Tul-ya with as a nickname Tul-ee. I really don't like the Talya spelling.... is the Talia the current spelling - and is this how people would pronounce it? ie Tul-ya? What do you guys think?

Our other leading contender is Yael, an ancient biblical name, which we would pronounce Yuh-elle, we are concerned it might be mangled frequently by those who haven't heard of it... any thoughts?

I appreciate any comments (somehow I never thought I would need to post on names, but we are both curious to see how people would pronounce these names - and if they would think "how nice" or "uggh!" - in the real world).

TIA so much!

Naomi
DS 12/02/02
DD 10/18/04

Naomi-
First congrats on the birth of your daughter. Hope all went well.

To comment on your names. I hate to say it, but my pronounciation for both was different than what you stated.

For Talia, I had pronounced it Tal-ee-a. And for Yael, I was a little closer with Yah-el.

With that being said, I think Talia is the better name. It is a little easier to pronounce and I can't think of anything negative that rhymes with it! :-)

Congrats, and do let everyone know what you decided.

[Saartje]

Congratulations!

I pronounced both named differently than you would, but that's not surprising. I really think it's hard to find a name that your child won't have to either pronounce or spell for most people.

I think they're both beautiful names. Yael seems to me like it would be more open for teasing in grade school and for mis-hearings in adulthood (if I'm reading your post correctly, it sounds a bit like "yell" when you say it aloud). Like I said, though, they're both beautiful, so it's hard to go wrong.

(For how I'd have pronounced Talia: I come from an area with a large Spanish-speaking population, so I'd have pronounced it as if it were Spanish: Tah-lia. Not a big shift, though, if I met someone who pronounced it differently.)

Talia,
my friends named their daughter Talia all from a discussion at our home prior to her adoption.
They actually spell it Thalia but when we discussed it at the house we clearly thought the name Talia and we pronounced it "Tall-ya".

Congrats by the way...I am so stuck between two names with our girl due in March and wonder if I'll be in your shoes :)

Neve and Tristan born Feb 25, 2003
* EDD 3/19/05 IT'S A GIRL
* DOSSIER IN THE HANDS OF TRANSLATOR

http://home.nc.rr.com/ourbabytristan

[brigmaman]

Both names sound beautiful, but I love Talia. If I didn't see your explanation, I'd have pronounced it to rhyme with Dahlia. In fact, I my best friend in elementary school was Jewish and her name was Dahlia. I wonder if it was her mother's version of Talia.

Congratulations on the birth of your baby girl!
I think Talia is beautiful. I knew the correct pronounciation, but not of Yael. Was Talia a character in an Amos Oz book? Good luck with your decision. :)

[egoldber]

I think both names are beautiful, but I think that Talia is less likely to be mispronounced. But you should use the name you love best though. :)

I pronounced both of them wrong too, before I read your pronounciation. I was closer on Talia, and I like the look and sound of it better too. I fear people (based on my own bad pronounciation just now) will not know what to do with Yael, although I do think it's pretty.

But more importantly than my rotton pronounciation....Congratulations on the birth of your baby girl! Enjoy your newest addition! Good luck with the naming process!

Both are unique and lovely. I vote for Yael. What does she "look" like? :)

Sterling

[naomi01]

Update - and thanks.


Hi everyone, thanks so much to all the people who volunteered assistance with our recent name choice! We really appreciated everyone's input and it helped immensely.

Today we officially named our daughter Talia Rebecca, and we plan to call her Tali for short (pronounced Tah'lee).

As always, BBB to the rescue!

Thanks again everyone.

Naomi
DS 12/02/02
DD 10/18/04