[name_m]Hi[/name_m] berries! So I’ve been crushing on the name [name_u]Ara[/name_u], which I happened to believe a Korean name meaning “ocean” or “sea”. I’m Korean, and [name_u]Ara[/name_u] is a commonly used girls name here but I only saw one [name_u]Ara[/name_u]. But nameberry says it’s an Armenian boys name that means “king”, I sincerely hope Nameberry will add [name_u]Ara[/name_u] as a Korean girls name too that means sea or ocean, haha (long digression sorry)
Anyways, in this site, someone has mentioned without i or y, [name_u]Ara[/name_u] looks confusing to pronounce. I think that berry thought it was a variation of [name_f]Aria[/name_f] / [name_u]Arya[/name_u]. So I got worried if people will think and pronounce that as [name_f]Aria[/name_f]. I love [name_f]Aria[/name_f] too but [name_u]Ara[/name_u] is special to me since it’s a very few Korean name that can easily spelled in English. My question is, how would you pronounce [name_u]Ara[/name_u]? In my country, it’s ah - lah. Oh and one more thing, do you think [name_u]Ara[/name_u] is a unisex name? I really didn’t know it is used as a boys name in Armenia! It was a completely girls name to me. Thanks!
It sounds like a girl’s name to me. I would pronounce it “ar-rah.” I don’t know how to explain the pronunciation, but it would rhyme with “guitar” with an “uh” or “ah” sound on the end. Basically [name_f]Aria[/name_f] without the “i” sound. In the US, the “R” would not translate as an “L” sound, since they are very distinct here. So ah-lah and ah-rah are very different for me.
I think [name_u]Ara[/name_u] is really pretty! Especially if it’s a Korean name that speaks to you. It’s lovely.
I would pronounce it as Aah-rah (a long ‘a’ sound as it ‘Art’ at the beginning and a shorter ‘a’ at the end, almost sounds like a ‘ruh’). I think it sounds more feminine as many of the names ending in ‘a’ seem to.
It seems pretty unisex to me. I would pronounce it [name_m]Ah[/name_m]-rah, or possibly ay-rah. I think getting it pronounced [name_m]Ah[/name_m]-lah would be difficult in most English speaking countries.
I knew a girl in college with the name [name_u]Ara[/name_u]. She was a short, petite, blonde girl. It’s all girl to me because of her.
She pronounced it “Ar-uh” like car with an uh at the end and no c at the beginning. [name_m]Just[/name_m] like [name_f]Aria[/name_f] but 2 syllables [name_u]Ara[/name_u] and not 3 syllables like [name_f]Aria[/name_f].
I would say [name_m]AH[/name_m]-rah, too, or maybe [name_f]AIR[/name_f]-ah if it was a nn for [name_f]Arabella[/name_f]. I like [name_u]Ara[/name_u] a lot; I was familiar with the Armenian association, but I love it for a girl, too, probably because of [name_f]Arabella[/name_f], which I like a lot. I wouldn’t be concerned with the tie to a boys’ name; honestly, it sounds like it has origins as a girls’ name in Korean, so it’s probably just one of those flukes where it means one thing and is used on one gender in one language, but means something else and is used for a separate gender in another nationality. That doesn’t really make the Korean usage unisex, if that’s your concern–it just means it’s a very complex and interesting name! (Kind of like [name_f]Amaya[/name_f], which means completely different things in Basque and Japanese, or [name_u]Kai[/name_u], which has origins in Hawaiian, plus is variants of both Nikolaj/[name_m]Nikolai[/name_m] AND [name_m]Kaius[/name_m]/[name_m]Caius[/name_m]!, or [name_u]Andrea[/name_u], which is a traditional boys’ name in Italian (the Italian form of [name_m]Andrew[/name_m] for a boy), but has English, [name_m]German[/name_m], Spanish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Scandinavian, Dutch, Croatian, and Serbian origins as a feminine form of [name_m]Andrew[/name_m]!) The cool thing about names used internationally is that, sort of accidentally, there are all these cross-overs. I would love to meet a little girl named [name_u]Ara[/name_u]; it’s beautiful.
I pronounce it [name_m]AH[/name_m]-ra, [name_m]AH[/name_m] like car, mar, park.
I perceive it as unisex as it refers to a few separate names of separate origin, some of which are masculine and some of which are feminine. So generally I think it would fit a girl or a boy.
I would pronounce it just like [name_f]Aria[/name_f] without the I. I agree with a pp that the L and R sounds are very distinct in English, so you probably wouldn’t get an authentic pronunciation, but I think [name_u]Ara[/name_u] is very pretty nonetheless!
Thanks yall for replying! And I just realized that I have an Indonesian friend named Ara! So it has more than four origins (Armenia, Korea, Indonesia and the Cook Islands) wow… I was so dumb, I was like “Ara is way more easier to pronounce than Seoyeon or Naeun, so I can definitely use it as an English name!” And also surprised that many pronounces it like Ar-rah/uh. It’s really interesting. I think I’m going to find a very feminine middle for Ara, since now I know it’s a male name in other culture(s). Thanks again!
I like [name_u]Ara[/name_u] a lot; I was familiar with the Armenian association, but I love it for a girl, too, probably because of [name_f]Arabella[/name_f], which I like a lot. I wouldn’t be concerned with the tie to a boys’ name; honestly, it sounds like it has origins as a girls’ name in Korean, so it’s probably just one of those flukes where it means one thing and is used on one gender in one language, but means something else and is used for a separate gender in another nationality. That doesn’t really make the Korean usage unisex, if that’s your concern–it just means it’s a very complex and interesting name!