View Message

I would pronounce all of them Al-LAN-ah. LAN rhyming with can.

I would pronounce all the A- ones uh-LAH-nuh and Hannah like... Hand-d + uh

---

I know loads of Hannahs and several Alanas.

I would pronounce them all "ə-LAN-ə". I can also see how Alana could be pronounced "ə-LAHN-ə".

---

Hannah and Alannah would be bad. If Alana was pronounced the other way it would be all right. I don't know if that is a "legitimate" pronunciation or not. The only Alana I have met pronounced it "ə-LAN-ə".

---

I personally think Hannah is too common, and I really dislike it. I have met and known countless Hannahs. I have only met one Alana.

I'd pronounce both Alannah and Alanna al-ANNA to rhyme with Hannah (sorry!), and Alana as a-LANA. So Hannah and Alana would avoid the rhyming thing for me, but I still think they're too similar.

---

I have no idea at all how you get a LON pronunciation out of LAN, but then I'm not American. :)

I think the sames are too similiar and I would prn Alannah so it almost rhymes with Hannah.
Never met any Alannah's (ot other spelling) but I've met plenty of Hanna's (I live in Sweden though).

Anything that ends in -anna or -annah has a short a for me.
-ana is AWN-a (ON-a) to me.

---

I knew a Hanna who pronounced it HON-a and I struggled for years to say it right, but that was probably because I saw her name written long before I met her, and had a preconceived idea about it for a long time.

---

And I had a school friend named Alana in the 70s who pronounced it A-lan-a. So... I'm not that attached to the pronunciations of that name either.

---

I think if you wanted to avoid all rhyminess, you wouldn't name the second girl Alanna OR Alana OR Alannah. But I'm not sure rhyminess really matters very much. It's not a big deal. I'd choose Hannah and Alana if I wanted the different pronunciations.

I'd pronounce all of them as ah-LAHN-ah / ah-LON-ah (all tall A's), though I could see Alanna prn. AL-an-ah (just Alan with an -ah sound at the end) or Alana prn. ah-LAN-ah (like Hannah).

---

Hannah and Alannah are too alike; if not in pronounciation then in spelling. Hannah and Alana have the same problem, I think.

---

I know one Hannah, and nobody named Alannah / Alanna / Alana, though I do know one Alaina prn. ah-LAIN-ah.

I would pronounce them all the same!

---

As "Ah-LAN-uh", with the second syllable rhyming with "can".

---

And I'm not sure how you would get around the rhyming issue, because as far as I can see, Hannah and Alanna do rhyme. If it were me, I might pick Hannah and Helena / Elena or something, but even those are quite similar. This is one of those situations where a person has to bite the bullet and pick on over the other, I think.

---

I have met an Alana. She was a very negative, snobbish person though, so it turned me off the name. It strikes me as a very upper-crust, chilly kind of name, which contrasts sharply to Hannah's humble grace.

This message was edited 8/18/2009, 7:57 AM

I would pronounce all three as Al-LAN-a, with the second syllable rhyming with can.

---

It wouldn't be my instinct to pronounce any of them as ah-LAHN-na or ah-LON-na. I definitely think that an Allanah who pronounced her name that way would constantly run into people who wanted to pronounce it Al-LAN-a, and a few would would persist in doing so. If you don't believe me, consider this: My name is Janice, and throughout my life I have run into people, admittedly a small minority of all the people I have ever met, but still, some people who insist on calling me Janet no matter how many times I tell them it's Janice. Anyhoo.

---

So yes, I definitely think that Hannah and Alannah or too rhymey to be sisters. Judging by the popularity lists, Hannah is common, but actually, I have never known one, nor have I ever known an Allanah or Alanna or Alana.

I pronounce all of them a-LON-a. I've never heard nor can I imagine anyone pronouncing any of them to rhyme with Hannah. I can see pronouncing Alana as AL-an-a, but that doesn't rhyme either.

---

I wouldn't use Hannah and Alannah in a sibset just because they look so similar. I went to high school with a Hanna (well, it was short for Johanna), and there's a girl at my church of about 11 named Hannah, but those are the only ones I've known. I know one girl my age named Alannah, but she's the only one I've known.

Alannah and Alanna both rhyme with Hannah.

---

the double N influences this sound.

---

Alana could be said the same way OR as Ah-lahn-uh like I've heard people called that before..

Well, I know an Alannah in Oz - and she's definitely al-AH-nuh, which I really love. I hadn't heard the name before, but immediately fell in love with it on hearing it and seeing that spelling.
Alana would almost certainly suggest al-AH-nuh too (cf Lana) but Alanna would probably rhyme with Hannah.

I thought they would all sound like ah-LAH-na. That's the only way I've ever heard the name (and all it's spellings) pronounced :S