Cora pronunciation?

[crabette]

Think I love the girls name Cora... how is it pronounced / how would you pronounce it as default though?

From looking online, advice seems to vary between CORE-ah (rhymes with flora and dora, where the first syllable is pronounced like apple core); and C-OR-a / Cawr-a (where the first syllable rhymes with for!)

Not sure if this is an accent / regional difference or not... votes please!

Caw-ra. Or Core-ra as it sounds the same to me. Rhymes with flora.

One of my favourite girls names and considered it for both my DDs. I didn’t use it in the end though as it rhymes with my name which I thought it was a bit twee!

Going to upset some people with odd accents who think there’s 2 ways to say it… Cora rhymes with Laura

Core-ah for me, but in my accent almost all of the words people are listing rhyme.

I imagine the alternate pronunciation suggested is like Korra, which in my accent would be a close rhyme with tomorrow (almost 'tuhmorra') - obviously others pronounce 'tomorrow' differently and I'm not suggesting 'Corrow'

You need to ask people who share your accent.

Accents are funny, I dislike the Leicester accent because names ending in an ‘-ee’ sound get mutilated into an ‘-eh’ Nick-eh, Sall-eh, Luce-eh. And forget it with a H, Hallie would be Al-eh.

Poor and pour sound different to me, with poor being more drawn out

But yes Core -ah

Poor and pour rhyme but
Pour and sour don’t
Sour and power do but
Power and lower don’t
Read and lead do but
Read and lead don’t

@Flyingbymypants

Poor and pour sound different to me, with poor being more drawn out

But yes Core -ah

Poor does not rhyme with pour.

Poor has a double oo sound like look, book or Scots "soor" (sour)

Pour is the same as pore or oar.

I'm from East Coast Scotland, I have to say I can't follow what you mean about the different pronunciations. Cora rhymes with Flora for me: Cor-ra. As others said, same as in Downton Abbey if you just find some clips of that.

@strawberrie I'm from East coast of Scotland I would say that's not a common trait of Scottish accents at all!

In south and southeast England and London the word poor is not pronounced the same as look, book or sook.
That sounds like a Scottish pronunciation to me - puer, luke, buke.
I speak RP (ish) and would say 'poor' very like 'pour' or 'pore' but not quite, just with a very slightly longer 'or' . But certainly not with an 'oo' sound.

Lady Cora in Downton isn't Lady Corra! If you say it as you spell it with the double R it would shorten the vowel sound. Her name is pronounced Core-a, with a long 'ore' sound.

Poor does not rhyme with pour.

Poor has a double oo sound like look, book or Scots "soor" (sour)

Pour is the same as pore or oar.

Yes, you're right for some accents. Certainly my Scottish ILs use these pronunciations and find the way I say it odd.

But it's not odd for large areas of South East England - we don't really pronounce our Rs if they're at the end of a word, nor our Ws. And we ignore the double oo sound in poor.

So paw and poor are said the same - with an awe sound at the end. Or like "or" but no stress on the R. No strong R or W.

All the following rhyme exactly in my accent:

Poor, pour, paw, pore, or, awe, oar, core, law, claw, for.

I speak RP (ish) and would say 'poor' very like 'pour' or 'pore' but not quite, just with a very slightly longer 'or'

You speak posher than me

Certainly when I went to a private school for a couple of years, they were keen on teaching us to announciate "properly" i.e. speak in RP. I dare say if I'd stayed there I'd say poor and pour differently.

But I left, and slipped straight back into my London ways

So, if I only heard the words "Paw Patrol" in my accent, I'd need to see the context to understand that it was about animals, and not meaning "poor patrol", "pour patrol" or "pore patrol"

Aussie accent input

Core-a

Cora, Dora the Explorer, Flora, Laura, Bora Bora all sound the same.

Core, door, floor, war, paw, poor, pour, score, law, lore, boar, whore, store - all the same.

I think the name Cora is lovely by the way!

All those sound the same to me. Even when you clarify further, still the same.

I'm a Cora and pronounce it Core Ah, rhymes with Laura :)

Actually Core-rah would be more accurate, this is messing with my head now 🤣

@annlee3817

I'm a Cora and pronounce it Core Ah, rhymes with Laura :)

Cora doesn't rhyme with Laura in my scottish accent.

My DD is Cora. We pronounce it Core-rah

You needed to mention your accent in your OP. In non-rhotic accents (most of England and Wales) there is no difference between those pronunciations.

Yes, I always find the lack of awareness of ones own subjectivity extraordinary in threads like this (well, most threads on MN actually but that's another story!). Just state what accent you speak in, so people can understand the examples you're giving in that context.

My favourite ever was one about the pronunciation of 'Sue', posted by someone with a Welsh accent, living in Wales among similarly accented people, who didn't think to mention this for some pages. Instead getting in a huff and telling us that of course we all knew Sue was usually pronounced Siw and to stop being so obtuse! That was fun.

I enjoy the posters who pretend they don't know how virtually the entirety of England and Wales speaks because they are themselves rhotic speakers.

'Where are you getting the 'r' from?'

Yes, though similarly, there is an oblivious little-Englander-ishness about so many posts, where posters don't consider that some people in the UK do pronounce 'r's, so using r to signify an 'ah' or 'uh' sound makes no sense - unless you qualify it by stating you speak with some version of English accent.