Origin: (Greek Mythology, French)
Pronunciation: (EE-lahrah, EE-la-ra, ehLAHRuh, EE-laruh)
Gender: Female
I was looking up a name that is an
asteroids name and I saw this name. It is pretty and sorts of exotic but still
easily pronounced. I really like this name so I don’t have anything more to
say, LOL.
This is a cute name. I like names that start with an E. At first when I read it, I do read it as ee-LAIR-a. But the more I see it, the more I pronounce it EE-Lahrah. I think English speakers do have a tendency to stress the second syllable when it comes to unfamiliar names.
ReplyDeleteSee with Sara and Sarah I pronounce them differently. I pronounce Sara, with out an H at the end, as sahr-uh and I pronounce Sarah, with an H, as sair-uh, but either is correct.
DeleteThe same goes for names with Lara and Laura in it. With Laura I have always pronounced it Lor-uh and Lara as Lahr-ah. I always think of Lara Croft Tomb Raider when I think of Lara and thus use the pronunciation Lahr-ah. I had a school mate whose name was Laura and so I remember it was pronounced Lor-uh. But again either pronunciation for each name is correct.
Now with names like Laurie all bets are off for me as I have been known to pronounce it both as lahr-ee and lor-ee. A character of mine is named Laurie and I pronounce it lahr-ee and a neighbor I have is named Laurie and both she and I pronounce it lor-ee.
But when I saw Elara I thought instantly of EE-lahrah (because of the way I first heard Lara on Lara Croft Tomb Raider) and when I saw the pronunciation on the internet I was correct. But I can see where you at first pronounced it as ee-LAIR-a.
I do agree that we do have a tendency to stress the second syllable but even more than that we seem to add or make our own pronunciations of foreign names. I am really bad at just going with a pronunciation that I think is correct or close to the proper pronunciation. I think many names have several different pronunciations because people from different regions and who have different accents pronounce names so much differently than others. But that's the beauty of most names; there is almost never a wrong pronunciation. :~)
I am glad you thought this was a cute name.
Oh and I hope what I wrote made sense, LOL. I have been up since 8:15 AM and I am so tired from cleaning my house this afternoon. So I hope my brain processed my thoughts properly and that I wrote them down right. UHG! I think I just confussed my self, LOL!
Oh and I hope what I wrote doesn't come off as rude. I was just trying to explain my pronunciation ways and how I understand how you first saw this name.
DeleteLOL, not rude at all. I do see how names like Laura and Laurie would influence how you'd pronounce this name. Funny thing, I personally know a Lara who pronounces her name as Lair-ah. So it's always interesting to see people pronouncing the same name differently.
ReplyDeleteI had family in town for the weekend which was great but it was quite hectic before hand getting everything together and all. So finally I am back on here.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I had never heard someone pronounce Lara as Lair-uh, but I do think that is interesting. I did hear just a few days ago someone named Laria and they pronounced it Lair-ee-uh but some pronounced it lahr-ee-uh. So it is sort of similar to Lara pronounced Lair-uh.