Brenna always makes me think of the surname
Brennan with the "n" dropped off of it. So it doesn't strike me as very feminine or attractive.
I much prefer "KEER-uh." Forgive me while I go into my namenerd-y snit about spellings. My prefered spelling is
Ciara, it's the most authentic, as you point out. But I understand that it is not very user-friendly outside of
Ireland. So the Anglicized spelling of
Kiera is fine to me. I rather like it.
But there I draw the line. The
Keira spelling bugs me. In Irish the letters "ci-" are pronounced "kee-." Thus,
Ciara is really "KEE-uh-ruh," but when spoken at a normal rate is gets smooshed into two syllables and you are left with "KEER-uh." So why do I get bugged out at the
Keira spelling? Aren't they the same thing? No.
If I were to pronounce
Keira in Irish it would sound more like "KEH-ee-ruh" or "keh-EE-ruh" or "KEHR-uh."
Keara would sound like, "KEH-ahr-uh" or "keh-AHR-uh" or "KEHR-uh." I know this sounds like nit-picking, but I spent too many years getting my degree in linguistics and studying transliteration to let this pass on my watch.
There is a Russian name of
Kira ("KEER-uh") that I like as well. [It has the same pronunciation as
Ciara /
Kiera, but a different origin.] The masculine form is
Kiril ("keer-EEL") which is the Russian form of
Cyril.
Kyra is lovely, but I would pronounce it as "KIE-ruh," using it as the feminine form of
Cyrus.
Thanks for getting this far and letting me rant.
This message was edited 1/4/2011, 12:56 PM