Comments (Pronunciation Only)
Oof, not the comments saying they like the "Sierra" pronunciation better. Your loss for not appreciating the Irish language! It's a bit frustrating living outside Ireland where people always pronounce it wrong, but I still love it.
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I think this looks like See-Air-uh.
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Not a fan of the pronunciation.
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I’m quite surprised nobody has commented in 2 years.
Anyways, my middle name is Ciara. I pronounce it as see-air-uh not the other way. Personally I don’t know what to say about this since people are debating on how to pronounce this name.
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Anyways, my middle name is Ciara. I pronounce it as see-air-uh not the other way. Personally I don’t know what to say about this since people are debating on how to pronounce this name.
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My name is Ciara and I pronounce it like Kyara. I know some people pronounce it as Siara, Shara, and Kira or similar things to that— but I guess this is just the case of a name with several possible pronunciations. But then, it's also common for people to pronounce it a different way from you. So, it gets kinda frustrating when I have to painstakingly correct people each time. I think it's a pretty name (maybe mainly because it's mine), but it's annoying to have to say every single time that my name is spelled or pronounced wrong.
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I pronounce my name see-air-ah. I think all of the pronunciations are pretty. It's silly to get so defensive of how you prefer to pronounce a name. I love this spelling. If your name is see-air-ah a nickname could be cici or cia. If its key-air-ah kiki or kia.
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My name is Ciara pronounced "see-air-ah" in the English language, that how you're supposed to pronounce it. I am American, so that's how it is pronounced here most of the time.
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My name is Cíara with a fada on the I which is not too common in Ireland - but more common among northern and Western Gaeltacht regions (Irish speaking areas in Ireland). Ciara is the more common spelling in Ireland. I am Irish, live in Ireland, born in Ireland. It is pronunced key-Ra. Simple! :) My alter ego, who sometimes appears on a night out after a few Uisce beatha is called Sierra as the name stuck with friends when foreigners called me that. Nicknames people call me include, key, Kiki, CiCi and Kiwi is strangely common! All said in good spirit and humour! Key-uh-ra - nope, never ever been called that unless someone is having a laugh! Some of my foreign friends just can't get their heads around my name at all to the point where my Irish friends force them to say my name and laugh! Usually it's a mumbled ki -air-ah or ki-rah. It was only when an Aussie friend came to visit he was like omg I've heard your name like ten times since being here- I get it now! We were even in a supermarket and some other people were calling out the name Ciara looking for their friend. Before that he didn't really think the name existed! :)
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Coming from Irish heritage, I've always pronounced it "kee-ar-a", but the first two syllables merged into a mixture of "keer" and "kee-ar".
I personally have no idea when the pronunciation "see-air-a" came from.
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I personally have no idea when the pronunciation "see-air-a" came from.
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The reason there are a few ways of pronouncing it is because there are different dialects of Irish - for example a lot of Irish names in the Munster dialect have an extra syllable eg Seán, Niamh etc.
That said, pronunciation See-air-ah is not Irish at all.
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That said, pronunciation See-air-ah is not Irish at all.
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The original pronunciation IS and ALWAYS WILL BE KEER-ah, Where are people getting KEE-ar-ah from? That's just a bastardized pronunciation. Besides, you don't pronounce Ciarda, Ciardha CEE-ar-dah, do you? No! It's KEER-dah. Anyways, both Ciarda and Ciara are lovely names, with the right pronunciation that is.
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I was given the name via a perfume from Revlon, and I've heard it pronounced differently SO many times- like sarah or sierra, kara, key-ah-ra, see-ah-ra, see-ay-ray, ugh. Sierra and see-ah-ra are the two most common ones people say to me- my parents call me see-ar-ra, but I personally like kee-ra, which is what I understand to be the correct way to say it. I find it not only more true to the name Ciara, but more pretty and simple than the three-syllable versions.
When I meet people, I usually note that they can say my name however they like- including Clara. It's something you've got to get used to!
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When I meet people, I usually note that they can say my name however they like- including Clara. It's something you've got to get used to!
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How many Irish people have to say in these comments that the native Irish pronunciation is Keer-a before people get it?
It's not Key-re, Key-are-a, Key-air-a, Sierra or anything else. In native Irish tounge it is Keer-a.
I might be wrong about this but I'm pretty sure that in Irish when two vowels come together, only the first is pronounced: I. E Ciara = Keer-a, Siobhán = Shi-von not Si-o-von, Orlaith = Or-la not Or-lat.
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It's not Key-re, Key-are-a, Key-air-a, Sierra or anything else. In native Irish tounge it is Keer-a.
I might be wrong about this but I'm pretty sure that in Irish when two vowels come together, only the first is pronounced: I. E Ciara = Keer-a, Siobhán = Shi-von not Si-o-von, Orlaith = Or-la not Or-lat.
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Si-ah-rah/Sierra is the proper pronunciation in English, because a c in front of a soft wovel is pronounced like an s. Like anonymous said, however, is this not the case with the Irish language. So to all you people "not understanding" how anyone can mispronounce this name, it really isn't that obvious to a non-Irish-speaker.
Then again, all languages put their own spin to all names without any version being wrong. It's not wrong, it's not right - it's just different.
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Then again, all languages put their own spin to all names without any version being wrong. It's not wrong, it's not right - it's just different.
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Seeing as I'm Irish and actually called Ciara, I had to comment on the proper Irish version of this name. :-)
First, it's not 'Key-Rah' or 'Keer-Ah', it's 'Kir-Ah' ('Kir' to rhyme with 'Fear' and 'Ah' to rhyme with 'Da', with no stop between the 'Kir' and the 'Ah' ). So that it's pronounced 'Kirah'. The 'Kir' bit is slightly elongated as well. I hope that makes sense because when I read the comments, I actually didn't find any that made that point. I think when you see 'Keer' written it looks like it should be 'Kee-Rah' ('Kee' to rhyme with 'Key' and 'Rah' to rhyme with 'Da') which is wrong.
Also in response to Anonymous, I've never in my entire life heard of a Ciara nicknamed Kiki. Not even once and I know other Ciaras and as I said, am Irish myself. In fact the only time I've ever heard of the name Kiki was as an American nickname or as the name of a cat. No offense meant! There is no set nickname for Ciara as such in Ireland. It's whatever your friends call you: Ciar, Ciars. Anything really. :-)
In reference to the whole Ciara / Sierra thing. I think it's a case of a name being made up and spelt as it sounds, as happens sometimes in America. Such as: Mykil instead of Michael etc.
The thing with the proper Irish name Ciara is that words aren't spelt how they are pronounced in the Irish language and there is actually no K in the alphabet, hence the hard C. So that's why it's hard for people who aren't Irish to know how to say it!
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First, it's not 'Key-Rah' or 'Keer-Ah', it's 'Kir-Ah' ('Kir' to rhyme with 'Fear' and 'Ah' to rhyme with 'Da', with no stop between the 'Kir' and the 'Ah' ). So that it's pronounced 'Kirah'. The 'Kir' bit is slightly elongated as well. I hope that makes sense because when I read the comments, I actually didn't find any that made that point. I think when you see 'Keer' written it looks like it should be 'Kee-Rah' ('Kee' to rhyme with 'Key' and 'Rah' to rhyme with 'Da') which is wrong.
Also in response to Anonymous, I've never in my entire life heard of a Ciara nicknamed Kiki. Not even once and I know other Ciaras and as I said, am Irish myself. In fact the only time I've ever heard of the name Kiki was as an American nickname or as the name of a cat. No offense meant! There is no set nickname for Ciara as such in Ireland. It's whatever your friends call you: Ciar, Ciars. Anything really. :-)
In reference to the whole Ciara / Sierra thing. I think it's a case of a name being made up and spelt as it sounds, as happens sometimes in America. Such as: Mykil instead of Michael etc.
The thing with the proper Irish name Ciara is that words aren't spelt how they are pronounced in the Irish language and there is actually no K in the alphabet, hence the hard C. So that's why it's hard for people who aren't Irish to know how to say it!
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Ciara is one of the most popular names for girls here in Ireland at the moment. I know many women and girls called Ciara, including my own six year old niece, and I have only ever heard it pronounced as Keer-ah. The masculine form of the name, Ciaran, is pronounced Keer-ran. Unfortunately Keira is becoming an alternative spelling of the name in Ireland, mainly due to certain celebrities having that name and also due a lack of knowledge about the spelling of Irish names.
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"KEER-a"? The native Irish pronunciation is "KEE-a-ra"; it should be spelled "Kira" if it's pronounced "KEER-a".
Ciara and Kira have different origins: Kira is a Russian feminine form of the Greek/Persian Cyrus, which is means "sun" or "far-sighted" while Ciara is derived from "ciar", which means "dusky" or "dark" in Gaelic; their sounds are similar but their meanings are opposites. And then there's Italian Chiara, which is an Italian form of Clara; Clara means "clear".
Counfounded English pronunciation.! As a Gaelic learner, I can't stand hearing this lovely name being mangled into "Sierra", a totally unrelated name.
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Ciara and Kira have different origins: Kira is a Russian feminine form of the Greek/Persian Cyrus, which is means "sun" or "far-sighted" while Ciara is derived from "ciar", which means "dusky" or "dark" in Gaelic; their sounds are similar but their meanings are opposites. And then there's Italian Chiara, which is an Italian form of Clara; Clara means "clear".
Counfounded English pronunciation.! As a Gaelic learner, I can't stand hearing this lovely name being mangled into "Sierra", a totally unrelated name.
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It SHOULD be pronounced as KEER-ah as it comes from the name Ciaran, which is pronounced KEER-en. However, this name is commonly mispronounced & misspelled. If you want SEE-air-ah, please use Sierra and if you want KEY-air-ah, please use Chiara.
These misconceptions are probably why people avoid this spelling, Kiera / Keira are easier alternatives as Kyra can sometimes be as well, although the latter may also be pronounced KY-rah.
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These misconceptions are probably why people avoid this spelling, Kiera / Keira are easier alternatives as Kyra can sometimes be as well, although the latter may also be pronounced KY-rah.
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American pronunciation (even though I'm not American but I know this anyway) is Si-E-Ra.
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This is an Irish name. The "ciar" prefix is pronounced "keer." Therefore, this name is pronounced KEER-uh. It is not pronounced key-AIR-uh, nor is it pronounced see-AIR-uh. It is KEER-uh, and there is no way around it.
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It is pronounced key-ar-ah It irritates me to no end when I hear people pronounce it si-air-ah (it would be spelled Sierra if you were to say it this way). Sierra is a Spanish name; Ciara is Irish! That's why it is pronounced key-ar-ah; it is the feminine form of Ciaran which is prnounced either key-ar-on or keer-on. It is definitely not an Italian name and it certainly wouldn't be spelled Chiara. It is too beautiful a name to be butchered like this.
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I think it can be pronounced in many ways. Ki-ar-a (if you're looking for an Italian thing going on), see-ara-a (if you want to spell it like a Portuguese, Brazilian or Spanish would do). It depends on who's using it. I, personally, love that name pronounced see-ara-a because I would only spell it ki-ar-a if it was written Chiara.
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It's funny that it's pronounced kee-air-a when I pronounce it like sierra. It's actually really irritating when people try to pronounce it kee-air-a.
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This is my name. I love it, it was also my great grandma's name. I pronounce it ki-ar-a.
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My cousin is called Ciara, said Key-a-ra but I've also heard it pronounced key-ar-rar. I think Key-a-ra is the nicest.
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