Italians use exactly the same spelling and very similar pronunciation of Rebecca as we do in English.
This is mainly because the name derives from a third language, Hebrew, from which both the English and Italian use of the name derive.
Meaning and origin of the name Rebecca
The origin of the name Rebecca derives from the feminine Hebrew name Ribqah. Its actual meaning is the subject of some debate, with both Hebrew and Aramaic having words that are phonetically similar. One suggested meaning is 'she who allures men with her beauty', whilst another refers to the word for 'tying or knotting a cord'.
Regardless of its precise meaning, Rebecca is the Biblical name for the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau.
As with many Biblical characters, the name was popularized by the spread of Christianity and is now a common first name in Italy, amongst many other countries around the world.
How to say Rebecca in Italian
Although the Italian spelling of Rebecca is exactly the same, there are very minor changes to the way an Italian might pronounce the name.
The first is the initial letter R. Whilst Italians are famously more likely to 'roll' their r's slightly, English-speakers tend to use the softer sounding voiced alveolar approximant (phonetically transcribed as [ɹ]).
The second main difference in how an Italian would pronounce Rebecca comes in the first vowel.
'E' in Italian is almost always pronounced as 'eh', especially in the case of a short vowel.
In English, the first part of the name, or re- is unstressed and would be pronounced more like rub- as in rub-ehka.rather than reh-bek-ah.
