Talia — Name Meaning in Islam

Root: ت-ل-و (t-l-w), "to follow, and by extension to recite". Tāliya is the feminine active participle: she who follows and she who recites. The two senses are one in Arabic: reciting is following, word after word, in order — the reader treads behind the text rather than speaking over it.

From the same root: tilāwa (recitation, and specifically the measured reading of the Qur'an), talā (to follow — ash-Shams 91:2 uses it of the moon following the sun), yatlū (he recites; al-Baqara 2:121 speaks of those who recite the Book as it should be recited, putting the verb and its verbal noun side by side), matlūw (recited), tālī (the following one, the next in order), tawālī (succession).

Note: the same string of letters exists as a name in Hebrew and in Latin-derived European naming, with unrelated origins. The Arabic name stands on its own root and does not depend on them.

Spellings: Talia, Taliya, Taaliya, Talya (Turkish, though usually felt there as a separate name), Talia (Indonesian), Taliya (Urdu), Talia or Thalia in French forms, تالية and تاليا.

Pronunciation: TAA-li-ya — three syllables, stress on the first, which is long. The t is the plain tāʾ, not the emphatic ṭāʾ, so it stays light and forward in the mouth.

Masculine counterpart: Tali, uncommon.