Lara, Lyra or Lana?

[Treesandbees]

Which one do you prefer and why? Also, can you see any obvious nicknames/shortening people might use?

I don't like any of them. Lara is probably the better one though I prefer Laura by miles.

Lyra and Lana are both equally bad I think.

I'm Lana, I like it - but only in my old age. Growing up I hated it for reasons I will list below. I am too old to be named after Lana Del Rey so it was Lana Turner who was old news even then and no one at school had even heard of her. Lana is anal backwards - many teenage school years were spent with boys asking for anal because of this (and because teenage boys are a PITA). You will get about 10% of people calling you Lana - the other 90% will call you Alanna and you will begin to answer to it and not even notice when they do, to correct someone everytime they got it wrong would make even the most talkative parrot hoarse. Even most of the 10% who call you Lana will believe that it isn't really your name and its a shortened version of Alanna too.

My favourite is Lara.

I love Lana, but probably wouldn't use it because of the stupid 'anal spelt backwards' thing.
Lara is great though and almost equally nice.

Lyra- OK, but I think a bit too closely associated with the Philip Pullman books, so it may date badly. Did he invent the name, I wonder?

I prefer Laura.

Lyra and Lana.

I like Lara. Not keen on the other two.

I have a little girl called Lyra and I and dh love it though it does get misheard for Lara, Leahla (sp?), Lana etc etc. Sometimes feel I have condemned her to a life of spelling and repeating her name. But I hope she grows to love it as much as we do. It has annoyed me that people say "oh, thats nice where does it come from" just think they are filling air as they are not sure that they like it or not. Also there is the assumption that you got it from the Philip Pullman books, though they are inextricably linked it is a constellation and not a made up word or name as I have had implied to me (dh mum ). As for nick names think they just happen and she tends to get called pudding more often than not . i wonder if when she starts to talk she might refer to herself as RaRa as its easier? I could live with that.
I know a grown up Lana and I really like it but having had the anal connotations pointed out I reckon I would think twice!

I have a Lara. We shorten her name to La-la (I swore we would never do this but we do), Lar and Larly.

I'm a Lara and never had any nicknames only one friend sometimes calls me La! I was named after the Lara in the film Dr Zhivago, it was the first film my parents saw together as a couple

I love Lyra - it's the main character from the golden compass.

Also I like Lara but when I say it out loud (might be my essex accent ) but it can be one of those ones that sounds a little common?

Does that makes sense?

Whatever you choose will be the right
one for you though.

Lana Turner is my Lana association, not Lana del Rey. I feel ancient.

Lara is definitely the most classic. It's a lovely name, timeless and not too common.