Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Am I pronouncing this name correctly?

194 replies

Maybree · 16/10/2021 16:29

Our daughter is due on December 6th and we’ve decided to name her Alana. We will pronounce the name “Ah-lar-na”. I haven’t come across many people with this name so I just wanted to check.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule · 16/10/2021 20:24

(Or we could just all learn to use the IPA...would save so much time!)

Margotshypotheticaldog · 16/10/2021 20:23

Just call her Brigid. 😊

ThePoisonousMushroom · 16/10/2021 20:23

Or the ‘aa’ sound. Or however you spell it. It’s to differentiate it from the hard ‘a’ sound.
To say ‘ba Na na’ would imply that the ‘a’ makes the same sound in all three syllables of banana in our accent, when it doesn’t.

MajorCarolDanvers · 16/10/2021 20:23

Ah-lah-na

HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule · 16/10/2021 20:22

Why don’t you just spell it ‘ah’ though? Then we wouldn’t have to have this same confusion every few days!

ThePoisonousMushroom · 16/10/2021 20:22

@PartyStory

Ok, so the “nar” in “ba-nar-na” is not a real “r” sound. But why is everyone writing “ba-nar-na” then and not just “ba-naa-na”? Or “ba-NA-na”?
Because ‘ar’ is how we spell the ‘ah’ sound 🤷🏻‍♀️
PartyStory · 16/10/2021 20:20

Ok, so the “nar” in “ba-nar-na” is not a real “r” sound. But why is everyone writing “ba-nar-na” then and not just “ba-naa-na”? Or “ba-NA-na”?

3catsandcounting · 16/10/2021 20:06

After personally sparking the banana debate, I'm now craving an oven-baked banana laced with rum and served with whipped cream, maybe with a few toasted pecans sprinkled on top. ☺️

wishing3 · 16/10/2021 19:47

Should read ‘I’d pronounce’.

wishing3 · 16/10/2021 19:47

If province as you say OP.

Skyla2005 · 16/10/2021 19:44

The one I know is a lady in her 40s and it's spelt Alanna. Sounds like alarna

FWBNC · 16/10/2021 19:40

Lana
Layne
Alli

The ones I know

sausagepastapot · 16/10/2021 19:38

It's not 'Ah' lana or 'Ay' lana, its 'Uh' larrrrr nuh

sausagepastapot · 16/10/2021 19:37

My friend Alana is pronounced like Uh laaah nuh

KirstenBlest · 16/10/2021 19:36

I think I'd say AL-un-uh

Alanna would say Al-ANNa

CockalierMum · 16/10/2021 19:36

I would pronounce it the same as you OP.

tabulahrasa · 16/10/2021 19:26

I took the r to be the long A that almost makes an r sound in like an Essex accent, for example.

But every Alana I’ve ever known pronounced it as a short A

Peanutsandchilli · 16/10/2021 19:13

The al an na pronunciation should have double n.

The al ah na pronunciation should have one n.

HandScreen · 16/10/2021 19:11

For example, the name "Dara" is pronounced "Dah-rah" by Irish people, but in an English accent, this becomes "Daw-raw", which is fine and correct to the accent.

HandScreen · 16/10/2021 19:10

I think the ba-na-na/ba-naw-na example is spot on - if you say "ba-na-na", then pronounce Alana rhyming with Anna. If you say "ba-naw-na", then pronounce it with the non-rhotic r (Al-aw-na). Both are correct, just using your own accent.

ThePoisonousMushroom · 16/10/2021 19:09

The link explains the fact that non rhotic speakers don’t pronounce the ‘r’ sound as a hard ‘r’.
Which means when they say something like ‘I say ba nar na’, they don’t mean that they pronounce the hard ‘r’ in the middle.
So ‘alannah’, to many, would be pronounced ‘a lar na’. That doesn’t mean they pronounce the ‘r’, it just means that the ‘a’ sound in the middle is elongated.

whoopsnomore · 16/10/2021 19:08

Yep, this thread is now about accent, because guess what, accent affects how you pronounce things (including baby names)

SageRosemary · 16/10/2021 19:07

@ThePoisonousMushroom

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English

It’s really quite a simple distinction, and is part of the beauty of the English language Smile.

That link doesn't help, it's comparing FARMER with FARMER, a word containing 2 R letters

Alana/Alannah does not have any R, silent or otherwise

BashfulClam · 16/10/2021 19:06

I say ba-na-na as I’m Scottish, I have known a few Alannah’scabd it definitely not pronounced with an r sound. It’s pronounced similar to Anna unless you say Arna Confused

HandScreen · 16/10/2021 19:05

It's from the Irish "a leanbh", which means child - it's a gorgeous name. In Ireland it's pronounced like the name Anna with an "al" in front. I can see why in an English accent that would be "Al-aw-nah", which is fine.

Swipe left for the next trending thread