Do you like the name Alana, and how would you pronounce it?

[WhyTheHeckMe]

I'm 32 weeks pg with dc2.

Got a 2 year old DS called Theo. Loved his name because it wasnt too popular but not chavy either.

We don't know the sex but have a huge struggle with girls names. I have just suddenly tonight realised I actually really love the name Alana.

But what's your opinions? We've kept all name options entirely to ourselves so need opinions of strangers :-)

I would like it pronounced 'Ah-larnah' as opposed to 'Al-Anna'

Is the spelling correct for this?

If you have this name or a do with this name do you find the spelling and pronunciation an issue?

Lastly does it get shortened to anything?

Theo doesn't and I can't see that Alana could apart from 'Lana' maybe.

Is it even a nice name? !

OP, I just think you're failing to grasp that for most English speaking people around the world, we do actually pronounce the letter R when it's in the middle of a word.

You want to know if people pronounce the name with a short or long Ah sound in the middle. (Short for me.)

Being so dismissive of others' accents is rude, especially when you say Celtic names look made up, while considering using one yourself!

I've taught a few - they've all been nice :)

I don’t like it but that’s because there was a girl at my school with that name who was not nice. The school did an old people’s Christmas party each year and she stole the alcohol from the hamper meant for the old people!

Her name was pronounced Ah-Larna.

Not really. I'd pronounce it uh-LAHN-uh, I think.

I know an Alana so would pronounce it ah-lar-na , didn't realise it was pronounced any other way! I love it how she pronounces it, but al-anna doesn't sound quite right imo, doesn't roll off the tongue very easily either.

@WhyTheHeckMe you haven't chosen to pronounce it a made up way at all. I would assume it's "A-lar-na" first.

You pick what you like :)

People aren’t protective of their accents- just explaining that to many of us A-Lar-na and A-Lah-na sound completely different.

And the Irish names you listed and insulted are perfectly phonetic. In the Irish language, which is as it happens a far more phonetic language than English.

Oh fantastic @villainousbroodmare - are you a Gaelic speaker too? I haven't found one on MN yet, or the city I live in now . Perhaps we're from different islands, it's certainly synonymous with serenity where I'm from - or rather a sort of ethereal word that isn't quite Serenity in English but means a sort of childish calm. Ma chì thu na tha mi a ciallachadh.

Again OP, lovely name- I think you'd just have to accept that people would pronounce it differently if they were not English as many non-English English-language accents are rhotic so maybe try it out with both pronunciations for a while and see how you feel.

I am never moving to England as after reading this thread I realise I wouldn't have a clue what you are on about. Baa and car sounding the same?
How would the Queen pronounce it, is perhaps the question we need to ask!

There was a contestant on Big Brother a few years ago and I still don't know if her name was Narinda or Narinder - People pronounced it differently depending on where they were from

I'm a Scouser and I'd pronounce it Al ar na.

I've only ever heard it pronounced this way. But then I'd say farther for father too so it's obviously the accent.

Not getting the point about it being difficult to imagine the name being pronounced differently in another region?

Have you heard of, say, television? Because that 98.9% English voices; we are familiar with them from way up here in the fucking hinterland.

You can tell that having this name and people pronouncing with an r annoys me - you don’t pronounce Hannah har-nah so you wouldn’t pronounce Alana a-lar-nah either! It isn’t that Scottish people are confused. You’re actually just saying it wrong. There is no r! Alarna is a hideous name! If you’re not going to say it properly, for the love of god don’t call your child that!

If that’s how it’s said in your accent, that’s fine, what I don’t understand is claiming that the name should be pronounced with an r sound when there isn’t one in the name?
Don’t think I’ve heard someone said farther for father, if so how do you say the word “farther”?
Most of the tv I watch is problably American, I watch lots with Scottish and Irish voices too, definitely not 98% English. And so much variety in english too, thinking Eastenders and Corrie!

Yes, but we're talking about the difference between English and Scottish pronunciations!

I don't really care, it's a fine name either way. All I'm saying is that it's a name that people will pronounce differently by region, and the OP won't be able to ask them to pronounce it her preferred way. So if that's a concern then another name might be better.

The only Alanna I know was a 40 year old extremely angry/chavvy alcoholic who used to come into work.

So no, afraid personal experience has put me off.

Tamera Pierce has an incredible book series with a main character called Alana ... so that redeems it somewhat.

Oh and everyone where I’m from says ‘alarhnah’

And I’m from Yorkshire ^ so it’s not a south/north thing. No one says ‘al-anna’ ... hey don’t in Lancashire either

I wonder if some people in this thread know many men called "Alarn"? 🤔

No i say Alan but i still say Alarna. Same as I say Dan but would say Dana is Darna not Danna.

Alanna would have 2 n to me. It's not wrong just different areas say things differently.

I don't understand how "r" drops into much of these words at all.

I'm not from the U.K. and if I met someone who called themselves ah-lar-nah I would expect an "r" to be in the name.

I know a lot of Alana's but I've never heard one pronounce their names with an "r". It would sound like "a-larm-ed" or a-lar-ma ( some Mexican news paper) or a llama...

I would struggle, to understand your child's name and would spell it the way you or her say it. I struggle to understand most British people outside of London (not meant to be offensive) but I'm in Glasgow at the moment and I have to listen really really hard to hear what people are saying when having conversations... I probably look dumb or rude but every second word misses me. English is my native language... even my DH struggles to understand some accents and he's British... the mind baffles.

If someone said to be farthers day but means Father's Day I would wonder what on earth they were talking about... and what does farthers day involve.

This has been an interesting thread nonetheless.

@Llamallann how would you pronounce Llama?

Fwiw OP, I've met a few and all but one have been pronounced A-Lah-Na, it's a lovely name.