I know a girl named Eliza, but she pronounces it El-ee-za (long e), not El-eye-za (long i). How common is this variant (El-ee-za)? At first I was thinking it should have been spelled differently to avoid confusion, but spelling it phonetically (Eleeza) produces an odd result. Then again, Eliza is derived from Elizabeth and there's no long i in that. It almost makes more sense to pronounce it as El-ee-za, but I'm more familiar with El-eye-za. El-ee-za does sound prettier anyway.