How would you pronounce...

BrideNamedMeg

How would you pronounce Clara?


If we have a girl, I might want her to be impossible Let's see who gets that reference!

benevolentforce

My instinct is that people with American accents would predominantly pronounce it with the AIR sound, while people with British accents would predominantly pronounce it with the ARE sound.

Which do you prefer?  Is there one you're hoping for?

avigailandcharlie

benevolentforce said:

My instinct is that people with American accents would predominantly pronounce it with the AIR sound, while people with British accents would predominantly pronounce it with the ARE sound.

Which do you prefer?  Is there one you're hoping for?

This. One of my best friend's daughters is Clara pronounced the American way, and my cousin's wife is Clara pronounced "claw-ra" and they live in London (she's from Ireland). I think Americans will default to clair-a and she would have to correct people often. Either way, beautiful name!! And she could always move to somewhere where they pronounce it the other way :-)

Excitedmum35

In Australia it would definitely be
cl-are-a

rockopera

H is so in love with Jenna Louise Coleman, I'm surprised he hasn't suggested Clara yet.

I agree with @bandteacher though, don't set her up to fight American pronunciation.

pepperedmoth

I'm familiar with either pronunciation. I think it's NBD to go with the slightly more unusual one. If it irritates her later, she can change it easily.

laurstarx

Clah ra

SassyFlats

I'd pronounce it Clair-ah, but I'm assuming you're thinking Clah-ra (Dr Who!).

Mcsweets

I immediately thought it was clah ra....

clo1982

This was mine and DH's top girl name (before we found out we were having a boy). I was going to spell it Claira even though I think it is normally spelled Clara because I didn't want people to mispronounce and think it was Claw-ra. Either name is beautiful but maybe add the "i" if you were going for the -air sound. Or...you know what....do Clayra!!!! Then it'll be super unique!

SassyFlats

FTR, one of our picks for a girl's name is Kara... same exact pronunciation issue. Except that I say it "Care-uh," like I think most Americans would. But I've definitely heard it "Car-ah." That's like nails on a chalkboard to me.

BrideNamedMeg

I definitely prefer the British pronunciation Clah ra, but I also think they're pretty similar so it wouldn't bother me to hear the Clair - a.  

We have similar issues with DS (Xavier) as many people assume it's pronounced with the X sound (like Ex-avier) vs. with the Z sound Zay-vier and it only bothers me when people in the family, who should know by now, say it wrong.  

SassyFlats

Laura8388 said:

FTR, one of our picks for a girl's name is Kara... same exact pronunciation issue. Except that I say it "Care-uh," like I think most Americans would. But I've definitely heard it "Car-ah." That's like nails on a chalkboard to me.

I think Kara is car-ah here. (Canada). Care-ah is spelt Keira... My opinion

Really? To me, "Keira" is "Keer-ah"