The Definitive Guide to How to Pronounce My Name
Like a car (vroom vroom).
My name is Cara.
Upon reading this, you are faced with a decision. Is it pronounced "Care-uh" (like, I care a lot about you), or is it "Car-uh," like, driving a car . . . vroom vroom?
Most people I meet say Care-uh, as in Cara Delevingne or Irene Cara.
But, in my case, it's Car-uh. Like "face" in Spanish, "friend" in Gaelic, Cara mia! in Italian.
Like the old Jay and the Americans song: "Cara mia, why . . . must we say goodbye? "
I've had people tell me that my name is spelled wrong. And that if it's really Car-uh, then it should be Kara, with a K. (So go back to 1975 and tell my parents that, I suppose.)
I will introduce myself to someone and say, "Hi, my name is Cara," clearly pronouncing it Car-uh (vroom vroom), and the other person won't even skip a beat: "Oh, nice to meet you, Care-uh . . ."
Or they'll be like, "Carl? Your name is Carl?"
Even weirder is when people who I've known for years slip and call me Care-uh. Which I totally get if I haven't seen them in decades, but sometimes it happens with people I see regularly. Especially if they're stressed or distracted, their brow will wrinkle when they look at me and it will just come out "Oh, hey, Care-uh."
“Like “You got a fast car”-uh. ”
Or in a business meeting, someone I've worked with for years will suddenly forget and introduce me as Care-uh, and my co-workers will squirm like the kids in class when the substitute teacher says someone's name wrong during roll call.
Quite often someone will tell me they have a (sister, niece, daughter, best friend) named Care-uh, so it's going to be a challenge for them to remember that I'm Car-uh.
I go through phases of diligently correcting others and telling them that it's Car-uh (vroom vroom), but it happens so often, and the experience of correcting people is so awkward, that I pretty much let it go unless it's someone I know I'm going to be interacting with a lot.
The only thing worse than the awkwardness of correcting someone is the awkwardness of not correcting them and them finding out later. It only makes them feel betrayed, like I should have told them. And they're right. I should have.
So, maybe if you ever forget, or if you start overthinking it so much that you can't remember which way it is, you can find this blog post and be reminded that it's Car-uh (vroom vroom).
Like "You got a fast car"-uh.
Or like a native Spanish-speaker once told me when I said my name was "Cara, like 'face'" and he said, "or cara, like 'expensive'."
The point is, like it or not, my name is Cara (vroom vroom) with a C.
One way to remember might be to think of "Car Talk," the Peabody-award-winning radio show from the '90s and early '00s with brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi.
Rather than car parts, this blog is about Cara parts: the pieces of me that I'd like to share with someone and, it turns out, it's you. So, thanks. I hope maybe we can find something to talk about. And if you accidentally call me Care-uh, I don't care (uh). It happens all the time. Vroom vroom.
