Lyla, Lorna or Lara?

[soulandwine]

I'm stuck having a massive dither between the girl names Lyla, Lorna and Lara. I know that I definitely want a name beginning with L, and this is my shortlist. My pros and cons for each name are as follows:

Lyla - I love the fact that it's so pretty and feminine, and easy to pronounce. I love the spelling. Slightly worried, however, that it's becoming too popular and perhaps sounds too 'little girly' and lacks punch.

Lorna - Really unusual these days, which is great. I love that it sounds strong and assertive. On the cons side, concerned that it sounds a little harsh, not pretty enough and is dated?

Lara - Once again, love how strong this name sounds. Short and pretty. Relatively rare. For the cons, I don't like the fact that it rhymes with so many other names - Cara, Zara, Sara (I don't like any of these names and have bad associations).

Which name gets your vote? I'd really appreciate any thoughts or opinions. I'm open to other name suggestions, although I've spent a very long time getting down to this list.

Thanks in advance!

Another vote for Lara

Lorna.

[quote SecondStarFromTheRight]@WaxOnFeckOff That's confusing! No part of the word mourner should rhyme with Row as far as I'm concerned 😂[/quote]
I mean row as in row a boat, not row as in being given a yelling off.

How do you pronounce mourner?

Don't like any. Lorna sounds harsh and poor Victorian novel ish.
Lara seems incomplete.

Lara is my favourite. Then Lyra rather than Lyla (Lyla will get constantly misspelled and mispronounced: Layla, Leela, Leila, Laila)

Not keen on Lorna. Not sure why. DH suggested it if we had a girl but I find it a bit dreary sounding, though the only Lorna I ever met was very intelligent and dynamic, so I'm not sure why.

@WaxOnFeckOff - The first part of mourner sounds like morning. Do you mean moaner?

@WaxOnFeckOff I'd pronounce it morn-er (morn like morning and er like early).
I think I can see why it wouldn't rhyme with Lorna now. It's not got an er sound at the the end but an ah as a PP mentioned.
Still can't get my head round the row bit in mourner though! I'm enjoying learning though.

Lara

Lyla - love
Lorna - it's a nice enough name
Lara- just a name I have a bad association with. If I meet someone who that name now I'm always caught on the back effort and try extra hard to be friends with them

[quote monkeyonthetable]@WaxOnFeckOff - The first part of mourner sounds like morning. Do you mean moaner?[/quote]
No, I wasn't thinking of moaner. Mourner starts with Mou not mo, the u changes the sound to mow for me so therefore mowr -ner the pronounciation of morner - to rhyme with Lorner (??) wouldn't have the U. and as @SecondStarFromTheRight says, Lorna ends in an ah sound not an er sound

It's hard to try to say something in someone elses accent wityhout hearing it.

I do know that Lara and Laura sound virtually identical in a Liverpool accent - it's hard working out who they are talking about on a conference call!

Lara is lovely.
Lyla is nice but I've treated so many canine Lylas it's now in my 'dog name' category.
Not keen on Lorna.

I really like Lana as well. Lyra is always 'Belacqua' to me.

Lyra - combing Lyra and Lara

In a West Country accent Lorna rhymes with Mourner.

I had an amazing, fun and cool Great Aunt Lorna who was born in the 1800s. I love the name!

I love Lara. Can sound a wee bit harsh in my Scottish accent though.

Not keen on Lyla, really don't like Lorna.

What about Lucy?

Definitely Lara.

I’ve got a Lyra niece. She’ll be called Lara by absolutely everyone anyway so you may as well just go with that now.

Lara

I really like Lara and also Leila. Not massively keen on Lyla. I know a nice Lorna but feel pretty neutral about the name.

What about Libby

My aunt is called Lorna and it DOES rhyme with mourner, but maybe some people pronounce their names differently.
I think they're all nice names. Lorna was on the list of our girls names.
Or what about
Louisa
Lucia
Lia

(Lyra is too much like Lycra.... imo!)

Lara is far and away the nicest. Lorna sounds a very OAP name and Lyra is too much like lycra. I love Laurel though, good suggestion from pp.

Lara was the name we chose for our child if we had had a daughter. Dc1 was a boy, but we loved the name so much that had dc2 been a girl, we would still have used it. This was over 30 years ago, so for us, the association was not tomb raider, but the Julie Christie character, Larissa/Laea from Dr Zhivago. I still live the name, both versions in fact, now. So Lara would be my choice from your list.

I have a Lyla, yes named after the oasis song.
I've taught, worked in nurseries and safeguarding all my adult life, never met another.
Never had it misspelled either.