H or no H?

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

How do you guys feel about names where the H is optional? Like:

Lea(h)
Sara(h)
Hanna(h)

I personally feel like it looks and feels unfinished if there is no H. But is it also due to cultural differences?

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Comments

[laminy.livejournal.com]

To me, I think it depends on the name. Like, with Lea(h). Without the H, I would just say Lee. Sara(h), I prefer with the H. Hanna(h), either way is fine. Right now, Hanna is probably prettier to me, just because I like a character named Hanna.

[schexyschteve.livejournal.com]

Leah definitely looks unfinished with no H. I like both Sara/Sarah and Hanna/Hannah

[http://users.livejournal.com/-dahling-/]

Leah
Sarah
Hanna or Hannah- I like that one both ways.

[behindgrey-eyes.livejournal.com]

I'd say Lea as Lee but with the H Lee-ah. Sara as is it but with the H it would be Seh-rah.

I quite like Hanna instead of with the H. Makes it a little more unusual because I know a few Hannahs :)

[waitingonsunday.livejournal.com]

I prefer Sara and Hanna, but I don't like Lea because it's uncertain whether it's meant to be pronounced as "Leah" or "Lee."

[dustthouart.livejournal.com]

Without the h I would pronounce Lea like French Léa.

I would guess Sara is SAHrah and Sarah is SAREuh.

Hanna I have no opinions about.

[lipsty.livejournal.com]

I would pronounce them differently without the H. Sara and Sarah are entirely separate names to me. I would pronounce Lea to rhyme with sea. Hanna/Hannah would be pretty much the same, though, I would assume that a Hanna was Scandinavian.

[amai-amaya.livejournal.com]

I'd say it very much depends on where you come from-

I hate Lea with an h because where I come from it's already pronounced lay-ah no matter what. The h would be totally redundant. I get how it'd be pronounced Lee in English-speaking countries without the h. Still, don't like it very much.

I've never seen Sarah without the h, so I prefer that spelling, but Hanna I also like without the h.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

Good point, I didn't think someone would pronounce Lea that way, but that's probably because I know a girl named Lea so I never thought twice.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I hadn't thought about how people pronounce Sara and Sarah differently. I like Hannah because it says the same thing backwards, haha.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

Yeah I never thought of that but a few people have brought that up.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

You're the first to say that about Lea, that's interesting. I never thought of it because I've never met someone who pronounces it like that.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

What region are you from that Sara and Sarah would be said differently? Everyone keeps saying that but Ive never met anyone in person who says them differently.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

Must totally be a geographical thing, because I've never met someone who pronounces Leah as Lay-uh.

[lorienellen.livejournal.com]

We didn't like Leah with the h so went with Lia because of the Lea/Lee pronunciation problem. I was a little conflicted at first because I don't usually like unique spellings, but Lia is a legitimate name and my MILs name is Lisa so it's a nice nod to her. I prefer Sarah and Hannah with h's though, weirdly.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

Lia is pretty! I think it's a good solution to the Lea-Lee problem.

[raze--the-rose.livejournal.com]

I prefer the H on the end of most of these types of names.

[nobodynomore.livejournal.com]

Depends on the name. I like Leah, and then I prefer Sara and Hanna.

[ma-ee-uh.livejournal.com]

I'd use an H with all three.

I know someone who just had a baby and named her Norah, and for that name, I'd prefer it Nora.

[chillinbabejodi.livejournal.com]

In England we say them completely different. :)

[starcrossed.livejournal.com]

I have to have the h with Sarah. I think Sara (pronounced like Zara but with an S sound) is a whole different name.

[lovetokate.livejournal.com]

Ha! I have a Hannah and a Leah and I too feel that it looks unfinished without the "h". :)

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

I hate the letter "h" in general, lol. But I'm French and "h" is always silent in French, so I find it pointless. My daughter is Clea and I've never had anyone say "Clee" even though we live in an English speaking area. It's actually Cléa (Clay-ah) but all her papers except her birth certificate have it spelled without the é and it hasn't caused any problems. So because of that, I do pronounced Lea as Lay-ah and Leah as Lee-a. I do prefer Sara and Hanna without that last h, but then again it's probably related to my being French.

[lipsty.livejournal.com]

I'm in the UK. Sara rhymes with Lara.

[chibisah.livejournal.com]

I agree that they all look unfinished without the H. But then, my name is Sarah, so I might be a little biased. ;)

I think it's interesting that some people see Sara and Sarah as two different names; I always saw them as the same name. I've had people pronounce my name as Say-er-ruh and Sah-ruh (how I pronounce it), so I knew that there are different pronunciations, but I didn't know it had anything to do with the H. Hmm.

[silvermidnight.livejournal.com]

I like the H in all of them. It looks strange and incomplete to me without it. I would pronounce Lea and Leah the same and Sara and Sarah the same. I'd say 80% of the Sarah's I've come across spell it Sarah and 20% are Sara. I haven't met anyone in person who calls herself "Sah-ruh" though, they're all "ser-uh". I am from New York.

[02895.livejournal.com]

My daughters name is Lillah. Lila and lyla looked silly to me. And also 1 L looked silly as well, so she is Lillah, pronounced lye-luh. My niece also has an h, she is Alainah. Pronounces uh-lane-uh.

[jordle.livejournal.com]

Where I'm from we would pronounce Lea - Lee and Sara is S-are-a so the H makes a really difference. I have always preferred Hanna over Hannah.

[jordle.livejournal.com]

Same in Australia.

[hermione-vader.livejournal.com]

I think it looks unfinished without the "H", too, especially with Sarah (unless it's in the context of another culture, like a Spanish-speaking one, where Sara is the norm).

[piperwest12.livejournal.com]

I prefer them with the h for te same reason you do. Having said that my friends infant niece us named Lia which I love.

[piperwest12.livejournal.com]

Lol! We are territorial of our names! Mine is Aida and it drives me nuts when people spell it Ada, that makes it a completely different name.

[boobeedoo.livejournal.com]

Same here in New Zealand.
Except I have a cousin who's name is spelt Sarah, but we say it the same way as we say Sara, i.e. Sar-ah, not Se-rah. lol. I guess if it's your name you can decide how you want it said.

[traecrochet.livejournal.com]

My sister's name is Sara. Sarah looks wrong to me.

To me, Hanna is a last name. I've only seen it spelled Hannah as a first name.

I've never seen Leah spelled Lea. Lia maybe, but n Lea.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

Are you American? Because I think I'm beginning to see a pattern, hhhhmmm...

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

Haha! I agree, to be honest. I never liked the idea of thinking it's okay to knock the H off.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

Really? That's interesting because I grew up on Long Island and every Sarah I know pronounced it like Sa-ruh with the A like "at" or "cat". It wasn't until I moved down to South Florida that people made fun of the way I said it and they all pronounced it "Ser-uh"

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

That's pretty! Although I have to be honest, I saw that and pronounced it like "Lill-uh"

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

I like Lia, too.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

That's the reason I like Hannah with an H, too! haha :)

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to see a pattern, now! It seems like most Americans don't see it as a difference.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

It looks like we Americans are the only ones who don't really say it differently, haha.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, interesting. Norah makes me think of it as a biblical name when it has an H for some reason, where as Nora without the H doesn't.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

agreed.

[satunian.livejournal.com]

I'm anti-H so I prefer it without (and Lia is an even better alternative to Lea/h).

I know what you mean about it feeling imcomplete sometimes, though.

[02895.livejournal.com]

I know a lot of people do because of the double L. But lilah to me also looks incomplete, so I had to stick the extra one in there to make it look right.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

they need the final h for me