Clara

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What do you think??

My clara has never been mispronounced as clare-a. I was surprised when I met one! We've had nothing but compliments on the name.

Lovely. My dh wouldn't go for it - it's so elegant & simple.

yeah very nice! but no to the clare-a, and i think its just the yorkshire accent that makes it sound like clare-a isnt it, i dont think the name is used that way anywhere else, or maybe im wrong, i dont know

I love it. Never knew it could be pronounced Clare-a, but then I'm from the south of England.

I know a little Clara who gets called Clare or Clary as a nickname.

In fact, thinking about it, the Clare -a pronunciation is definately nicer.

Clara rhyming with Lara/Tara/Zara etc a bit harsh sounding and Germanic. Its OK, though.

Dd would have been Clara if dh hadn't vetoed. Lovely name.

I know a Clara in the south who pronounces it Clare+a, Glamour. No clue if she has northern connections though.

I agree, Clare-a sounds softer.

I wouldn't have thought of pronouncing it Clare-a. It sounds a bit affected IMHO. I wouldn't say Tara, Lara, Mara, Cara, Zara or Tamara as Tare-a, Lair-a etc.

Well that's because there is no recognised pronunciation of Lara as Lair-a etc, so you would be randomly making that pron. up.

In the case of Clara there are 2 pronunciations in common use. This is true of several names. Helena for example.

Am I the only one who thinks of silence of the lambs ? - that was Clara right ?

No that was Clarice. (which they pronounced Clar-EES. But you can also pron. CLAR-iss!)

One of dd's friends is Clara, it's a lovely name and we don't know any others.
The only time her name is ever pronounced Clare-a is by Americans (and she soon puts them right!.

I've heard both pronounciations. The German Clah-ra as well as the English Clair-a to rhyme with Sarah.

I prefer the (German) pronounciation of Claa-ra. Not that keen on Clara rhyming with Sarah.

inogolo.com/query.php?qstr=Clara&search=Search+Names

I love it. If it is Clarr- a, not keen on Clare-a.

I know a Clara whose name rhymes with Sarah. I think Claa-ra (with a gutteral 'r') is the german pronounciation (mostly written Klara), whereas Clare-ah is the American version. In England you seem to get both .

I like Clara pronounced like Klah-ra, but don't like the anglisized version of Clair-ah with a rolling 'r'.

Does anyone know the origin of the "Claire-a" pronounciation?

English words like car, far, star etc. have the "ar" sound. They usually only change to the "air" sound if they are followed by an e, so they'd become care, fare, stare. If I saw the words cara, fara, stara written down then I'd pronounce the "ar" as "ar" not "air". That would fit with Italian (and Latin?) and German.

Dunno, but English isn't very logical, is it?
Clare-a seems to be the traditional English pronunciation. It's not unique, the name Sara can either be pronounced Sah-ra or the same as Sarah (see the kids' book/film 'A Little Princess')

Clah-ra is German (and Italian?) but seems to be becoming the norm over here?

How about just Clare? No mispronounciation issues there .

Lovely lovely