Chara

This is my middle name.

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If you want to pronounce this name the proper way in Greek, it is pronounced “Kar-a.” However, if you are my mother, you pronounce it sort of like “Char-a.” I am named for a relative named Charles and my mom thought this was the female form of Charles (it is not).

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Pronounced either way, the name has grown on me over my lifetime, but the original way to say this name is “Kara.”.

For people who looked at this because of Undertale, in that game (not irl), it is 110% pronounced kaw-rah. I know this because Chara is not short for character. In fact it isn't short for anything. Rather, it is a pun on the Japanese word "kara" (English-like spelling) which means empty (or off if you use google translate (which would suggest that it is actually a pun on the verb "off" AKA, to kill (also google translate doesn't immediately say off, instead it says from. Just look a little bit down and click where it says off. Double meanings are a thing.))) Since Chara doesn't have a soul until you give them one, this meaning works well.

The "ch" (or rather "chi" is pronounced like the ch in "Bach," which most English speakers pronounce quite correctly. It's sort of like a dry gargle. (Before an "ee" or "eh" sound (that is, the letters iota, eta, upsilon or the diphthongs epsilon iota, omicron iota, or upsilon iota (all pronounced "ee" in modern Greek), the letter epsilon or the diphthong alpha iota (both pronounced "eh"), it is pronounced like the h in "huge" (unless you pronounce it "yooj," as I usually do).)

It is definitely true that English speakers tend to mispronounce words and names in other languages. In Greek, the 'X' is said as 'kh'; thus, Chara is said khara. English speakers would probably end up saying Kara, simply because we don't use the 'kh' sound.

As a native speaker of Greek with several cousins that bear this name, I can definitely say it's not Kara. Khara is closer, but it's a guttural sound that I think is most easily represented by Ha-RA, emphasis on the last syllable.

The name Chara has the same first five (four in Greek) letters as the word "character" (which itself is from Greek), so the initial "ch" should be pronounced in the same way. Note that the "k" sound in English is only an approximation; it's more like a soft "k" or a guttural "h". For English speakers "k" will do, but never "ch" as in "Charlie" or "sh" as in "Shirley".

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Note also that, in ancient Greek, the accent is on the second syllable, but that will probably sound rather unnatural for modern English. The "a" in the first syllable can be pronounced as in "father" (my preference) or, in a more anglicized manner, as in "hat".

Pronounced Hara.
Kara in Latin.

It is also pronounced SH-ara.

VictoriaCalledTori is right on this; the Greek version of the name begins with the letter Chi, the letter with which Jesus' title of "Christ" ('Christos' in Latinised Greek) also begins. And "Christ" isn't pronounced "SH-rist", is it? The same logic applies to the name "Chara", QED.

I agree with seraphine_eternal. Since it's strictly a Greek name, the only "correct pronunciation" is the Greek one - and that's Kara (or, Khara). PS: I'm not sure what it has to do with Chara but anonymous, let me tell you – as someone who speaks 5 languages, all Indo-European – that English is the simplest of them all by far. What you describe has nothing to do with complexity of English language and everything to do with English speakers's bad habit of applying their native pronunciation to foreign words without thinking. (no offence intended).

CH makes a hard K sound. Like Kara (K -ah as in father- ruh).