How would you pronounce Clara?

[Thepotdog]

Thinking of Clara for baby girl due early next year however I saw online that a lot of people pronounce it Claire-ah , I’ve always thought of it as Clar-ah (pronounced like Cara but with an L) now I’m in 2 minds as I don’t want to burden her with a name that gets mispronounced all the time. Is it a regional thing how it’s pronounced?

Yep, rhymes with Lara, Tara, Zara

Lovely name. Never heard Clair-a and I think if you went with that pronunciation she’d be forever correcting people

To be honest when I say those two versions out loud I can barely hear a difference 🙂

I would assume Clah-ra but I do know a Clay-ra. Scotland

Claa-Raah. It’s a lovely name!

I can only think of one way to pronounce it and wonder why you're even asking this question...?

I'm guessing those in the clair-ah camp also like to pronounce Sara as Sarah?

That's just ignorant.
2 completely different names!

Excuse me?

my great aunt was a Clair-a. I think that was the original UK pronunciation

I agree with this

She-ra but with a C

My grandma who died before I was born was called Claire-ah. I have a friend with a Clar-ah

In Northern Italy it's Claire-ah. France, it's Claa-rah.

It’s a Spanish name, Clara. It’s Spanish for Claire.

I’m in the Uk and I’m Cla-rah.

Pronounce it the way you like! It's a lovely name either way.

I've never heard Claire-ah but I guess it's like Sarah. Interesting that that is the older pronounciation.

Clara like Sara is lovely.

I've heard Americans pronouncing Tara like Terra, so it might just be an accent thing rather than a totally different pronunciation thing.

I'm from Yorkshire and round here (among people 50+ like me anyway!) it would be Clair-a.

Sorry but Sara can either be pronounced to rhyme with Lara or the same as Sarah. Both are valid pronunciations. I could say that it's not knowing that that's actually ignorant if I was being mean...

And dear- drah

Dear-drah is actually correct I think, and how they say it in Ireland? Irish name.

Yes, Deirdre is an Irish name and your pronunciation is correct.

english language ‘rules’ again here -

Clara is a different sound to Clare as the addition of the e makes the prior vowel sound it’s ‘name’ - so the a in Clare (or Claire) is an ay sound not an ar sound. E is a vowel that is special in that way. Adding it to the end of any word changes the prior vowel sound.

Therefore Clara is Cla-ra and Claire/bare/dare etc are ‘errr’ not ‘are’ - down to the e on the end.

child of an English language lecturer here!

That’s so interesting! I never knew this and always thought the American pronunciation sounded strange. Now you say it’s Irish it actually makes more sense than dear dree