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I think Laila is beautiful. It does kind of remind me of names like Lyle and Kyla but thats because those are names that I guess I hear more or would except to hear where I think. I think it also sounds sweet and gentle, and the meaning is okay. Where I live, Leila and Layla are usually said Layla.

My aunt's name is Leila and she's Finnish. I can't say much about the use or the impression of it in Finland, considering I don't live there.
I know a lot of Norwegianers named Laila, and as far as I know, none of them are Sami. Though, Laila is fairly common in the parts of Sápmi located in Norway as well as Finland.
Laila is used in other parts of Europe (France, Netherlands, Czechia etc.) as well as in the Nordics. I don't want to speak on behalf of Samis, but I don't think the name would be considered exclusive to the Sami population or People with Sami ancestry.

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I personally prefer Leila over Layla and Laila (I know, I'm biased). The spelling of Layla seems a bit off to me, but that is because the spelling doesn't really fit the pronunciation in terms of my native Language.
I like Laila too, but I kind of associate it with ladies in their 50's.
Outside the Nordics, people will probably believe Laila is of Arabic origin solely by the spelling, but when pronounced the difference will be more obvious.

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Leila - Lay-LAH (the Finnish way).
Layla - Lay-LAH (I'm not too sure how it would work in Finland. Finns pronounce y like oo, so I guess it makes sense that this spelling is way less used in Finland.)
Laila - Lyla

This message was edited 9/6/2018, 1:30 PM

Laila (also spelled Lajla), the Sami name, is also used to some extent for Swedish women. It's pronounced LYE-la.
I would say:
Layla - either LYE-la or LAY-la
Laila - LYE-la
Leila - LAY-la

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P.S. The Sami also live in Norway, Sweden and parts of Russia. Their traditional country is called Sápmi.

I live in the US.
My little sister's name is Laila.
She pronounces hers as LAY-lah. (I tried to get them to spell it Layla before she was born, but that's another story.)

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She has never had anyone (to my knowledge) mispronounce her name as LYE-lah so with that reasoning I'm imagining a child who does have their name pronounced LYE-lah would have to correct people constantly.

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Now, that being said, I do pronounce Leila the same as Lyla / Lila, but I could easily understand if someone pronounced it the same as Layla.

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I like the sound of Lila / Lyla, but I wouldn't spell it Laila because I don't think it would be worth the hassle of constantly correcting people.

This message was edited 9/6/2018, 9:17 AM

I like Laila. I had a colleague named Laila and it was pronounced LIE-lah, even though it was from the Arabic Layla.

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Maybe keep in mind that only English speakers pronounce Layla as LAY-lə. I've heard Layla in Arabic only as LIE-lah.

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I pronounce all of those as LIE-lah, with a subtle difference in Leila that I cannot convey in English. It's more of a sound in between LIE and LAY.

In the US, unless you've got an Arabic background or something like that, you would pronounce Laila, Layla and Leila the same: Lay-la. If you wanted the other pronunciation you'd use Lila.

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I like Laila, but much prefer Layla. And yes, Laila is very likely to be confused with Layla/Leila, or with Lila/Lyla if you pronounce it that way.