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I first saw this name as Nyah and assumed it was "NIE-uh." I loved it. I was actually disappointed to find out it's a variant of Nia ("NEE-uh") and thus my pronunciation was wrong. (Someone had a thread about this the other day -- but I digress.)

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"NEE-uh" sounds like it could be just the end of any number of names, like Antonia, Eugenia, Virginia, etc. OK, then why don't I have a similar problem with Mia, which I love? Could it be because Mia is more mainstream and I have known it since childhood? Maybe. Am I prejudiced because Nia is from Africa? I have to allow the possibility. But I love other African names like Johari and Shandurai, so I hope that's not it. Am I spiteful because I couldn't get my initial pronunciation of "NIE-uh." This seems the most likely to me.

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I even had a stock combo: Nyah ("NIE-uh") Gabrielle. Now what do I do? [Cue the helpful namenerd who pops up to let me know that either pronunciation is commonly used and I wouldn't be *making it up* to rely on "NIE-uh."]

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Hello? Are you out there helpful namenerd?

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. . . crickets . . .

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Now what do I do? I just can't get into the "NEE-uh" pronunciation. :-(

This message was edited 1/28/2013, 12:10 PM