Has anyone considered (or used) Thea?

dolanjj

My husband and I have loved the name Thea (pronounced THEE-uh) for a while. It was our girl name choice when I was pregnant with my son (we were Team Green). We were 100% set on it. Now that we are pregnant with our second, we are revisiting names, and I am having second thoughts. I have two concerns - spelling and pronunciation. I can handle spelling out a short name, but I don't think I could deal with having to spell out AND correct people who read her name. I am afraid people will pronounce it TAY-uh or TEE-uh. Has anyone used this name? Do you have any issues with spelling or pronunciation? Anyone considering it? Do you have similar concerns? Appreciate any thoughts anyone may have...thanks!

CML11

Love the name! I know a Thea, I've never heard anyone mispronounce her name. I'd say use it if you still love it.

zebrapanther1311

One of the summer interns at Dh's job was named Thea. She's the first and only Thea I've ever met. I love the name though.

BookitBoo

I love Thea (both as a nn and as a stand-alone name). I have never met anyone with this name but it seems pretty straightforward spelling/pronunciation wise.

queenbone

I would be surprised if you had troubles with Thea. My son prefers to go by Theo and I don't encounter any problems with it. Most people understand that Teo would give you the TAY-oh pronunciation, I would assume the same would be true with Thea/Tea.

dolanjj

Thanks, everyone. This type of feedback helps a lot. It's also nice to see the name get so much love!

conradraging

I love Thea, and I don't think you should run into too many issues. Maybe here and there, but I think most people would pronounce/spell it properly.

BackseatDriver

I guess I am in the minority, but I would have no idea which pronunciation the parents were going for. I know there are multiple pronunciations and I have no idea which is most common.

PB&J714

I would have pronounced it correctly, but I understand your concern for others not knowing. I don't see the hurt in simply correcting them once and moving on. With a short name like that people should only need to hear it correctly once for it to stick. And FWIW, I really like the name!

jennypolkadots

Hm - I honestly can't imagine anyone pronouncing Thea wrong, or any other way to spell it. It is a lovely name and not crazy weird or unheard of at all. As with any name that people may not have written out before, you may have to spell it the first time. But it is totally phonetic so people will likely go "oh, of course!" I have a super common name and people ask me to spell it all the time so this just sort of happens either way.

Thea is mostly known as a nickname for longer names. Like Dorothea, Theodora, and a few others. 

Another similar name is Thora. Thora is not usually short for other names I don't think. I love them both!

FakeFinn

Love it! I can't imagine a lot of people mispronouncing it, but a simple "it's pronounced thee-uh" should do (there aren't a whole lot of pronunciation options anyway).

jennyshawn0808

I love Thea! If we have another DD this will be her name. I'm still a little upset I didn't get to use it the first time...

Amanda&EricB

I love Thea! I have only seen it spelled that way, and have never heard it pronounced wrong.

MarxieVonTrapp

I like it!

allthecheese

Use it if you like it It's nms has too much of a Bertha ring to it but I have no idea how anyone could get Tia or any other pronunciation from it.

RebeccaS6627

I love this name, and I think the pronunciation is really straightforward.

526SadieSadie

My friend picked that as her new baby's middle name, I like it very much.

I'd instinctively pronounce the TH sound but the other two aren't outside the realm of possibility.  Just correct people, "Thee-ah, just like it's spelled."  Your LO might have to correct a few people now and then but it shouldn't be a big deal.

megbmeg

My close friend is a Thea. She always has to say her name a few times when introducing herself, and she does get called Tay-a sometimes. She uses her
middle name at Starbucks

dolanjj

That's so funny you mention Starbucks. Just for fun recently, I was at Starbucks and when they asked for my name at the register, I said Thea. The women repeated it, said it was pretty, then spelled it out, questioning whether she had it right (she did). So I am thinking, okay not so bad. Then as I wait for my coffee, the guy making the drinks calls out that mine is up and says "TEE-uh?" It was that experience (two different people within 5 minutes not being sure how to spell or say the name) that made me start questioning the name, as silly as that sounds.