Kaya is close to
Kayla and I could easily see people pronouncing it wrong. Not everyone is a name nerd and some people just lack... brain power? Lol, I don't know. I cannot count how many times I've heard
Caleb be pronounced suh-LEEB. Yes, really. There are all kinds of people out there.
That being said, I think I like
Kaia more. 'y' is so trendy right now. If someone said, "Hi my name is KAH-ya and blahblahblah" I would assume it'd be Kya. Mostly because I know a lot of Kya's pronounced KY-ah.
If I just glanced at Kaya, I wouldn't be surprised if my brain thought I saw
Kayla just because that's the standard name. If I looked at it closely I would probably say KY-ah because of
Maya but more often I'd just ask. Most people I know would pronounce it KAY-uh because that's how it looks. I'm not in a name-nerdy place. Hell, I know six pregnant women and when I asked what they're naming their babies they ALL responded, "Oh, we don't know yet. It's not really important."
&*@(^#@%#@%&*@^& Not important!! Ugh. That's my own griping though.
***Just showed this to some women: they all said
Kayla until I said 'no L'. Then they said "KAY-uh" *insert annoyed eye roll at nonname nerds* lol