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If one looks at the figures on the SSA site, it's quite clear that most American parents who have named daughters Ayla were inspired by Auel's character, not the Hebrew name. Plus, the more common transliterations of that Hebrew name into the Roman alphabet in Israel itself seem to be Ela and Elah. Ayla is an Americanized spelling to avoid the possibility of people pronouncing Ela to rhyme with Sheila.

This message was edited 10/16/2005, 3:38 PM