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[Opinions] Leona
I've been thinking about the name Leona. I used to not like it because of Leona Helmsley. But now I love it due to Leona Lewis, whose music I love as well!What do you all think of the name Leona?
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Too zoological for me. I prefer Leonie.
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Love it! It's one of my favorites. My favorite Leona combo is Leona Sarai, or Leona Sara.
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It's beautiful. I have it on my list. Leo makes an adorable nickname for it.
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I like Leona! I prefer it to Leonie (although I like both) because it is a little more heavy and serious, but not klunky or overdone. I tend to use similar but lesser-known names in its place, like Leora or Liora or Lenore, because of famous people with the name like Leona Lewis, but I like it.
It also reminds me of a person I know named Leoma (who always gets mistaken for a Leona).
I don't know if I prefer "lee" or "lay" or "le" for the first syllable...
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It's very pretty, but I prefer Leonora...or Leora.
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I love Leona! It's decidedly feminine and simultaneously strong and lilting.
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I prefer light Leonie ("LEE-uh-nee" or "LAY-uh-nee") to heavy Leona.I love Fiona, but for some reason I don't like Leona. There are few feminine names with a long, stressed "o" sound that I like / love. Leona is more the rule than the exception for me, sorry. But I always love seeing forgotten classics like Leona brought back from the brink of extinction. The Leona Helmsley thing doesn't phase me. I used to love Imelda before Ms Marcos made the name infamous. I made my mind up not to let one bad association with someone I don't know completely rule a name out for me. I'm not always successful, but generally this is not a problem for me. Besides, for every Leona Helmsley, I'm sure there are hundreds of nice Leonas out there holding up the honor of the name anonymously.I remember once on another site a couple who couldn't decide between Lana and Leona. They compromised on Lena, which I love.

This message was edited 1/10/2011, 3:24 PM

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I feel the same way. I much prefer the softer, sweeter Leonie. Something about the long o sound of Leona doesn't appeal to me yet I love Fiona and Leo (adore!). I'm not sure why the disparity but it is what it is.One of my older sisters is named Leona. She's always hated it and has gone by Penny since she was around 10 years old or so. She used to change her allowance into pennies to feel like she had more money so her friends began calling her Pennies which then became Penny.
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I feel like I'm in the minority here, but I really like Leona. A lot of people seem to think it's too old-lady (don't know why, because I've never met a Leona) or associate with Leona Helmsley. But because I don't have those associations, it's a very appealing name to me.
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