Clara

[allrags]

How would you pronounce this name? I like Clara to rhyme with 'dare-a' rather than Clara to rhyme with 'Tara'. Is it ok to pronounce it either way?

People from the East of London pn. Hannah as 'annah.

hi, clara in my family its always been pronounced as in 'tara'
i live in the north of england and its an old family name; i love it!

clara x

Hello

I'm Clara, I've always been "Claire-ra".

I prefer the sound of Claire-ra to Clah-ra- although its impossible to be objective about your own name. To be fair, I think neither pronunciation is wrong, but if one is your name, you want people to stick to it.

I get both pronunciations and lots of people asking how to say it (at least they bother to ask). I love my name overall but it does drive me mad when people I've known for ages still get it wrong. When you've worked with someone for nearly 3 years and they still gt it wrong, you just can't be bothered to correct them every single time. The one that really annoys me is the woman I work with who still insists on calling me "Claire" even though she knows full well it's Clara. I do correct her every time because she's an bloody idiot, and she still does it.

Another time someone told me my parents have spelt my name wrong and it should be Claira. How rude!

I also have to spell my name out 95% of the time if I give it over the phone or a desk or something.

I think I'm lucky to have such a nice, old fashioned, pretty name and it gets a lot of compliments, but if you can't stand people getting your daughter's name wrong I'd think twice about it.

I know a Clara pronounced to rhyme with Sarah. Mind you, I also know a Sara who pronounces it like Sarah rather than to rhyme with Tara.

Clara to rhyme with Tara is infinitely better than Claire-a.

It's personal taste. Both are equally valid.

I know of a Clair-ah, but it's spelt Clera.

You can pronounce it either way. Clara rhyming with Sarah is the tradtional English language pronunciation (quite popular late 18th and very early 20th century). It's still standard in North America I think. I prefer this one myself.

Clara rhyming with Zara is European and has become fashionable in the UK over the last few years, so much so that many British people are ignorant that the original pronunciation exists.

Depends how much it is going to annoy you when people inevitably say it wrong! But I am sure when they are told they will oblige you to pronounce it as you want.

Meantt 19th century obviously.

Yeah but what's the traditional pronunciation of Sarah, Ser-ah or Sah-ra?

I don't think you can definitively say that claire-a is the original pronunciation.

Well I don't about 'original' as in hundreds of years ago, but certainly from about 1775 to about 1980/1990 people in the UK would have automatically said 'Clare - a' rather than 'Clah - ra'.

Nadia's right, fashions change. In the same period Maria was pronounced Ma-rye-ah and Sophia So-fye-ah. Another case of the European pronunciation becoming fashionable and pushing the other out of favour. It will probably swing the other way in due course.

My name book says there are two English ways to pronunce it, and they're both different to the European way, which is similar to the Tara one, but has a shorter first 'a' sound.

It's true. My French friends do say it slightly differently. It is very popular in France and Belgium.

I'm Canadian...out here everyone says Clair-a.

PS Beautiful name