Kaliyah

Kaliyah belongs to a luminous family of modern American invention, a respelled sister to Aaliyah, the Arabic word for exalted or high. The K at the front tightens the opening and shifts the feel from Semitic to something more contemporary, while the trailing ah keeps the music. At rank 443, it sits among the Amaris and Nyahs and Zariahs that define current American girl naming, sounds built from vowels, meanings built from aspiration. Two syllables in pronunciation, even when the spelling stretches longer. Soft, sparkling, with a small lift at the end, as if someone just turned toward the light.