The Baby Name Wizard

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Contribute to, or edit, this collection of community wisdom on the name Lucia!

Comments and insights on the name Lucia: | Edit

I named my daughter Lucia 24 years ago after the singer Lucia Mendez. We are hispanic and pronounce it Lu-see-a.Umfortunately she gets many people including her teachers at school of other ethnics who refuse to pronounce it as we do.She had one teacher whose first name was also Lucia who pronounced it Lu-chee-a and thats how she would address her and even after correcting her all year round she refused to call her Lu-see-a. Everyone has their preference and I think it is only right that individual preferences should be respected. My daughter does NOT like to be called Lucy. She prefers Luz or Lou. She cotinues to correct people but states that it does get tiresome when people correct her on her own name. All I ask is that people respect other peoples preferences!!

Lucia is our current top pick for our soon to be born daughter. We like the Loo-Sha pronounciation best, but we wonder if most people are accustomed to the Lu-Chee-Ah pronounciation. Would this be a pain the neck for us and her to have to have to often correct?
We would call her Lucy as a nick-name and she'll have an older sis, Ella. Would love your thoughts.

Response from iV: Lucia has three perfectly valid pronunciations: loo-CHEE-ah (Italian), LOO-sha (English), and loo-SEE-a (English). Personally, I use the loo-SEE-a pronunciation unless I am corrected. It's perfectly fine for you to choose the pronunciation of the name that best reflects your own naming style... and possibly your heritage, since the name is used in German, English, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Romanian. I do love the name that you've chosen! It's very stylish and has a rich history.

(from Andrea) Our daughter's name is also Lucia, pronounced loo-SEE-a in the Portuguese tradition (my mother is Portuguese first generation immigrant). I love her name and am so happy to hear about others who love it too. It is funny to read these posts because I had never considered the loo-SHA pronunciation until people started calling Lucia that sometimes! Interesting what people read, and I always told myself I'd never name my child something easy to mispronounce, since my name, Andrea can be pronounced so many ways (I pronounce AND(like the word and) ree-uh). Oh well, guess you can't have it all!

(from MelKel) Our 19-month-old daughter is named Lucia Beatrice. It is pronounced like the saint and the island (LOO-sha). We call her Lou, Lulu, Lulu Bee and Lucia B as nicknames. It is really cute when she says her own name. (She usually adds the Bee to it.)When someone doesn't know us, the first time they say her name, it is usually the spanish/portuguese pronunciation of Loo-SEE-a. It doesn't bother me to simply say that we pronounce it differently. It's nice that there aren't a lot of Lucias out there. :)

Personal experiences with the name Lucia: | Edit

We named our daughter Lucia, thinking that it is a lovely and still less-common name, but we had no idea how often it would be mispronounced or met with total confusion! We use the LOO-sha pronunciation, and most often people call her loo-SEE-a. It doesn't bother me to have to correct people, but you'd be amazed how many people think Lucia is a boy's name (really...maybe based on the new popularity of Luca?) or just have no idea what I'm saying when I tell them her name. I find myself having to explain that the last syllable is pronounced SHA, even though it's spelled CIA, like Marcia.

Nicknames for Lucia: | Edit

Lucy, Lulu, Lu, Luce

Meanings and history of the name Lucia: | Edit

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Famous real-life people named Lucia: | Edit

Lucia Mendez, actress and singer

Lucia in song, story & screen: | Edit

"Lucia, Lucia" a novel by Adriana Trigiani
Title character in the movie "Sex and Lucia"
"Lucia de Lamermoor", opera