Lora = lore-uh. Rhymes with For A, Store A, Tor-a, Bora Bora.
Laura = almost like Law-ruh. Slightly more R in the first syllable; almost like larw-uh. First syllable pretty much rhymes with far, bar, tar, car, har-de-har-har. Slightly less nasally than far, bar, tar, etc.
Lara = lah-ruh. First syllable pretty much rhymes with ma, fa (as in do-re-me-fa), da (like the Irish word “da”). It’s like the “ah” sound in “magic wand.”
Anyway, they’re all different to me, but Lora and Laura are not so different to each other as Lara is to them.
In my Hebrew school, we had at least one of each of the following: Cara, Lara, Sara, and Tara. We also knew a Mara.
Cara was pronouced like “Cara mia.”
Lara was more like “Laa-ra,” but I’ve heard of others that rhyme with Cara.
Sara was actually pronounced “Saa-ra,” but I think that was because her mother was English and insisted on it. By the time we hit high school, however, Sara’s mom had lost the battle, and everybody pronounced Sara’s name like “Sarah.”
Tara also was a “Taa-ra,” but I think it’s more common to rhyme with Cara.
Mara was (and is) also a “Maa-ra,” but the actress Mara Wilson pronounces it to rhyme with Cara, I believe.
To summarize, everybody but Cara was pronounced with an a sound like in “father,” but the names are also pronounced the other way.
Me, I just assume any of those names can be pronounced two ways, and find out which one is right for the individual.
As far as Laura/Lara–these are obviously different. To pronounce “Lara” like “Laura” doesn’t make a bit of sense. Maybe that’s how Lara Croft’s name is pronounced, but…oh hell, something about a throatwarbler mangrove.
My daughter’s name is Laura, and she agrees with you. My mother (who has more southern in her) does say her name: “Lah-ra” instead of “Lo-rah”, but we forgive her. And she hates Laurie, too…
I do know of one person who named their daughter Lora, to prevent this type of thing. I know a Tara who rhymes with Sarah. Don’t know a Lara that rhymes with Sarah, though.
I’m with Cazzle, Lora and Laura the same with the first syllable of Lara to rhyme with car. Lar-a to rhyme with Tar-a but *not * with Sarah as above.
And perhaps it’s because I’m a Brit, but I can’t really hear the difference between ‘Lore-uh’ and ‘Law-rah’ except possible that there is a pronounced ‘r’ at the beginning of the second syllable. Am I missing something with my old world pronunciation?
My name is Laura, pronounced lore-ah. The exact same as Lora. I have been all over the U.S. and I don’t remember ever being called law-ra, and I have never had anyone ask me how to pronounce it before, so this thread is very odd to me. It would never occur to me to call another Laura law-ra.
If someone has an accent it might come out a little more as law-ra but I have only heard that with southern accents and it never occured to me that it was anything more than an accent, not a whole other way of pronouncing it.
Older men tend to call me Laurie, but no one else.
I just came in to make this very point, however I think Sara (sans h) at least in Britain is pronounced to rhyme with Tara and Lara. This is confusing!
FWIW Laura and Lora = Lore-ah to my ears
Lara = Lah-rah
This seems to be one of those Mary/marry/merry questions, where some people pronounce all three the same, some all three different, and some where two are homonyms and one is not. (For me “Mary=marry,” but not “merry.”)
I keep saying these over and over out loud using your descriptions, and I can’t make them sound different. Law-ruh and Lah-ruh sound precisely the same to me.
Again, I’m saying these out loud to myself, and LOW-ruh and LORE-ah sound almost identical.
The only place I’ve ever heard “Tara” was in Gone With the Wind, so that’s how I pronounce it. I do know a “Tera,” though.
And she hates Laurie, too…