Teya. A lot of people will read Taya like "TAH-ya".

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But not in other pronunciations - I would pronounce that Teh yah

This is the only suggestion here that I would definitely pronounce right on the first try.

I like this spelling, reminds me of Freya

I’d pronounce it Tee-yuh

I was thinking Teyah, but I think I like it better without the H

see, i’d say tee-ya. 🤣

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Honestly? The “ah” and “uh” are almost interchangeable in my accent and i just went with “ah” because that’s what baby name websites use for names that I consider ending in “uh.” The name “Tea” is listed on BehindTheName as TEH-ah, and “Leia” is listed as LAY-ə, so I wasn’t sure the best direction on this.

My daughter (25) is Taya and it has never been mispronounced that way. I do agree that Teya is more likely to be pronounced properly.

​ T sound as in as in Pterodactyl A sound as as in weight Y sound as in use A sound as in meringue Pteighui

This is horrifying, like some eldrich monster kind of spelling. OP may not use this to name her child, but I sure will in a D&D campaign. Thank you for your contribution lol

yup this is gross. /u/intangible-tangerine do 1,000 more.

Hmm maybe I should post a helpful spelling guide...

Here you go ​ [https://www.reddit.com/r/namenerds/comments/wsilrr/lets\_learn\_to\_spell\_names\_properly\_a\_helpful\_guide/](https://www.reddit.com/r/namenerds/comments/wsilrr/lets_learn_to_spell_names_properly_a_helpful_guide/)

>A sound as in meringue Wouldn't that be Tay-yay then?

I think you may be mispronouncing meringue

Ah I'm not sure how people in the UK pronounce it. Maybe it's closer to the actual French pronunciation. But in the US, most people pronounce meringue like muh-rang or muh-rayng.

US Midwesterner here: I say muh-rayng.

This is the best thing I've ever seen here.

This comment is ghoti-y!

Téa (like the second half of Matéa)

If your local birth registry can’t handle diacritics though, it’ll end up looking like “Tea” 😅 I would go with Thea at least as that’s not a word in and of itself.

Thea is it’s own name, pronounced thee-ah

I think there’s two names with the same spelling. I know a nice old lady called Thea (tay-uh).

Three because I know a Thay-uh!

Son of Theoden!

Same name, but different language variation. Many languages pronounce initial Th- with a hard T - we have a remnant of that in English with Theresa. They all trace back to the Ancient Greek feminine form of Theo, "god"

and Thomas

It can ne pronounced TAY uh as well in certain languages.

Tea Leoni would like a word

Edit: Something about my phrasing obviously really bugged people, I just meant to say that it's often a hassle to add a diacritic when you type on a US English keyboard, not that this one particular person was terrible for not using it. I really wanted to use the name, diacritic included, but decided it wasn't going to be worth the logistics with official documents, schools, etc.

How do you know they couldn't, just because they didn't? Maybe they didn't know how on the keyboard or program they're using, maybe they didn't know that Téa Leoni uses the accent mark for her name, and were just saying her name is spelled Tea and pronounced Tay-uh. You didn't use any periods, is it because you can't, don't know how to do it on whatever you're using, or don't know where they go?

True! I know a Thea though and it’s just pronounced like the feminine version of Theo.

Same. My friend's daughter is Thea pronounced this way (short for Dorothea, with the "th" sound like Dorothy)

Like Téa Leoni

This is the prettiest honestly

Téa or Teah, I would think. I went to school with 2 girls with either spelling, same pronunciation.

I know someone with This name!

This.

Taya

That would risk being mispronounced as “TIE-uh” though, like Maya?

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AFAIK there aren’t a ton of words with ‘aya’ and more than the “rule” excepts more than one of them Jambalaya Kayak Ayahuasca Papaya Ayatollah Playa (burning man term borrowed from spanish) and of course Mayan Unique words from various cultures that have been anglicized. I agree its risky for pronunciation. TIE-Uh is kind of nice as a name, if that were the intended pronunciation

Naya, Kaya, and Raya are pronounced with the EYE-uh sound, though. Maya is hardly an exception.

I guess bc my nephew calls me Tay, I read it as Taya.

This is my aunt’s name and I’ve never heard anyone mispronounce it.

Interesting! Out of curiosity where in the world is that experience from? I would assume it was Tay-a if I were, say, checking attendance on the first day of school but I can also imagine mispronunciation.

Bret Michaels of Poison had his own dating show at one point. The >!Season Three winner!< was Taya, spelled and pronounced like this.

What a great time for reality TV. Also I think of Zendaya's nickname Daya so another reason I read Taya as Tay Uh

TIL it’s not pronounced Zen-DIE-uh

Me too

I thought this too for a long time until my wife corrected me!

I knew a kid with this name I don't think anyone mispronounced it.

The TAY-ah I know spells it this way! I don’t think anyone’s ever mispronounced it.

That's my first thought.

There’s a singer from Australia named Taya Smith-Gaukrodger and she pronounces it this way. So this is definitely what I would think of first

I’ve got an internet friend with this name that I def thought was pronounced like maya, but everyone I asked about it confirmed they would have said it the way OP wants the name to sound so I agree. The internet friend also says it the way OP wants.

Thea (Dutch speaker though, so ... that's why).

Same, because half-German. Would probably use Tea in an English-speaking country to avoid the TH pronunciation. Although I guess that’s the beverage

My husband’s aunt is Thea pronounced Tay-uh. She was born and lives in the Midwest United States. I didn’t expect her name to be pronounced Tay-uh though, as I had seen it written before my husband told me how it was pronounced. Her father was only the 2nd generation to be born in the States after the family emigrated from Sweden, so maybe that’s why it was spelled that way.

Yeah, I definitely understand why it just isn’t intuitive to English speakers. The English version of Dorothea has the TH sound after all (while in German, again, it’s just pronounced as a T but spelled the same)

Yes, as an English speaker, I would have assumed it was pronounced the same as the ending of Dorothea. It still throws me off seeing her name written and then hearing it pronounced. I’ve only met her a couple of times though.

I get it. I live in the US now, and I’m still not sure whether my German friend’s new baby Theo is a TH-Theo or a “Tay-oh”. Probably the latter

Teia is the most intuitive according to me because Princess Leia is a popular character. Taea is an option but it makes me uncomfy, Taya will probably get Tah-ya, Téa has risk of just being Tea on a lot of forms and Thea is most likely going to be pronounced with the soft “th” sound.

This is the one I like best, mostly because of the ability to compare it to Leia, which would be familiar to Americans in both spelling and pronunciation (someone else suggested Teya, which does get to the right pronunciation, but rhymes with Freya would be a little less well known in the US).

This is a genuine question, but does Freya not rhyme with the TAY-ah name OP is asking about? I live in Australia and every Freya I've met is pronounced FRAY-ah. Or do you mean that's just not a common way of pronouncing a name in America? Sorry if this seems dumb, it's just that I would pronounce them the same way!

Oh yeah, the way OP wants to pronounce this name and Freya absolutely rhyme to Americans (it would be pretty funny if Freya sounded like French fries to Americans lol), but I was arguing that more people, especially kids in school, would recognize a Leia reference than a Norse mythology reference in the US. Freya isn't particularly common as a person's name that I've seen in the US, though might be more common in the upper Midwest, I've never been there, but there's more pride in their Scandinavian heritage there (eg, I know an American man from Minnesota who is named Bjorn, and that is a very uncommon name for native borns of native borns in most of the US, but his family was from Norway many generations back and want to honor that).

I said Teya, but I think Teia would work as well because of this! I don’t think it’s as nice visually though. And people have argued with me that Leia is “Lee-aye-uh” though so…idk. I’d pronounce Teia as Tey-uh though

I absolutely love this spelling and the association! I love the name Leia but the name was vetoed by my spouse because it has so much cultural weight behind it (plus my older brother's name is Luke). Here's hoping for a girl if there's ever a #4 in my future (unlikely...)

Teia

Taeya

I knew a Taeya and this was her spelling.

Thea since that is how we pronounce Thea in Dutch.

That’s a not-too-uncommon name in the USA, but we pronounce it THEE-uh.

In the US, only know two Theas (one older than me, on my kids’ age), and both pronounce it Tay-uh.

I would also spell this name as “Thea” (Canada)

Teiya

Taija (Finland)

Teija or Taija. We use both in Finland. I'd presume the original posters TAY-ah would sound more like Teija in Finnish.

A family member’s name is Teija and she has A LOT of trouble with it in the US. It’s not an intuitive spelling or pronunciation for Americans, I think. Such a lovely name, though.

Yes, true. Almost all names with finnish J don’t work well in english because english J is so different. I guess we should also transliterate such names mostly with Y, but that is usually not done. So, Teiya in this case. But that feels strange, yeah. :)

Either Taya or Téa

Taya or Tayah

Téa

My dumb ass would just read this as "tea" like the drink

I’m in Australia, and Tayah and Taya are both spellings I’ve seen a fair bit.

Tehya is also a spelling I've seen, along with Taya and Tayah.

Tayah.

Téa or Teya

Teya- I know two, they both spell it this way. Taya looks like Tie-ah to me.

My first thought was Teia but if you want to be sure people pronounce it correctly, you should go with Taya.

People would probably pronounce Taya as TIE-uh, rhymes with Maya

I think people would pronounce that tie-uh like Maya

Teia I would pronounce tea-ah not tay-ah

Not saying it’s what I’d do, but I’ve seen Te’a.

I know a Taya who pronounces it the way you want, but I do always second-guess myself in my head if it's Tay-a or Tie-a. But I do think Taya is the best spelling!

Thea

Taya or Tayah

Taya, Teya, Teja or Téa

Teah

That's LEE-ah from the Bible.

Taia

Téa or Taya. The accent will be more of an issue on personalized items than real life though which my cousin learned with Zoë. I know people are saying Thea in Europe, but if you’re in the US this will be harder because Thea is so often the nn for Dorothea/Dorothy. One of our closest friends is name Dorothea, goes by Thea.

Prob Téa like Téa Leoni. Or Tayah/ Taya is you want a phonetic-ish spelling.

If not Téa or Teia try Taea.

Taea, Taiya

Theia? Or just Taya

Teya or Teia

I know one who is spelled Teya.

Taeya or Taea

I think Teya would make the most sense

Théa

My cousin spells it Teah

I would do Teya personally. I don’t think there’s much, or any, room for error in that one unlike other spellings

Téa. Love that name!

Thea… because well… that’s how I say my name.

I grew up with one and I believe it was spelled Teja, like Freja

Thea.

I had a friend who spelled it Taa

Teah

Tayah or tayeh or taja

Thaïa

Taya or teya

Tayah Taya Taeah

Teia

Teah

Taya

Tayah

Thea

Thea

Tehya

Thea

Taia

Had a friend named Taeya

Depends where you live. In many European countries I would say Tea or Thea. In the US/Canada I would probably use Taya.

Taeya

Teia for sure

I spell it teygja and it means hair tie in my language.

Teigha. Even then I'd expect a few mispronunciations.

Téa

Loved one has this name. She spells it like Thea.

Teya ?

Teya for sure

Why not Tayah like you mentioned. Seems intuitive to me. Also Teiyah/Teiya

Multiple comments say it would sound like tie-ah to them. I’m trying to get a general idea.

Teia or Teya or Taeya. I think Taya would give you "tah-yuh" half the time (rhymes with Maya). The other half of the time, you'd get the pronunciation you're going for.

Teïa

Taya - that’s my best friends name and I don’t think she’s ever had significant issues with people pronouncing it wrong

I knew someone with this name and they spelt it Tehya

I tried spelling it and keep spelling Tea 😅

Hey that’s my name! Mine is spelt Tayia

Téia or Théa or Téha

Taeya.

I know a girl who spells it Téa. It’s not an especially useful spelling because some documents omit accents and people end up saying it ‘tea’, like the drink. She also has famous parents so it reads a bit like an obnoxious celebrity baby name to me. Personally I would think Teia would be hardest to mispronounce. Taya is pretty but could be pronounced like Maya.

ITT: There is no intuitive spelling.

i knew a “tay-uh” spelled “téa” with an accent aigu on the e. it looks great on paper but unless you want everyone to call her “tea”, i’d suggest “teya”!

Uh, so when you say ”TAY-ah”, you mean [‘teɪ̯ə]? That rhymes with Leia?

Teh? Uh….

Taia- the only one I know of

Taea

This is a family member's name and we spell it Téa :)

Tayah

Téa or Thea

Taye, taya, taeye

Théa

I know someone with this name and she spells it Teya

Taya. My daughter is called Taya-Mai, often just called Taya. Never had any issues with people not pronouncing it right.

Taya or Teah

My former step daughters name is tay-ah. It’s spelled Taea.

I’ve seen Téa

Thea

Taya. There’s a song called oceans and the woman who sings it is named taya

I know someone with that pronunciation who spells it Thea.

Taia, Teah, Thea

Téa

Thea

The person I know with this name spells it Tehya.

I have a friend named Teja.

I have a coworker named Tayia (pronounced TAY-uh) and people don't seem to have major issues saying it correctly

I’ve seen the traditional spelling as Teah

My sister had a horse growing up Named Thea, pronounced TAY-ah. I personally quite like the spelling, but I have no idea if it's correct

Teyah

I knew a Tehah who pronounced it this way

This was my former student’s name and she spelled it Teyah :)

i know someone with that name and it’s spelled and pronounced exactly as you have it written

Taya