I remember reading an interview with Cecil Fielder where he was asked why he pronounced his name that way, instead of the more common (in the US, at least) sees-ul. He said because that’s the way his mother pronounced it. It was like the interviewer thought maybe Cecil was being pretentious or there was some big reason. It was just how he was taught to pronounce it.
Beanie and Sess-ul??? Just doesn’t sound right. I vote for See-sil.
sesill
(not an ee sound but an e sound, as in ‘bet’)
Actually, I thought “Cecil” was Gaelic and therefore pronounced by Irish rules of pronunciations, which makes it phonetically “Greg”. (Makes as much sense as Samhain being rhythming with “cow-and”, anyway.)
I vote for fingerspelling it, no confusion there.
It’s pronounced “Ed Zotti.”
Main Entry:Cecil
Pronunciation:,se-s,l, ,si-
Function:biographical name
websters writes it like that, but shucks, there must be a better way.
I was always under the impression it was pronounced either “Wooster”, or “Eyjafjallajökull”.
Zombie, whatever…
I’ve always said SEE-sill and didn’t even know there was another way until I saw Cecil B Demented. Mind Blown (about the pronunciation).
According to the Jews of biblical times, the Name was too sacred to be pronounced by any mortal other than the High Priest, who did so only in the privacy of the Inner Sanctum. Anyone else daring to pronounce the Divine Name would, presumably, be turned into a pillar of salt!
Same here, basically. Notice how many participants in those past threads have been banned?
Although we pronounce it Sess-sil, the aristocratic [del]prominent pests[/del] house of Cecil is properly pronounced Sissle ( to rhythm with crizzle ). They were Welsh Sitsylts, and sheep farmers 500 years back.
It could also occasionally be a girl’s name, apart from Cecilie.
No, but neither does “See-sil B. Demille”. I don’t have a problem with it depending on exactly which Cecil we’re talking about. The only non-famous Cecil I can remember knowing, a kid a went to high school with, pronounced his name “See-sil” (actually more like “See-sull”) BTW.
Girl’s name - It was more common as a girl’s name in the 19th century. As in Cecil Woodham-Smith
My grandfather was called Cecil, and he pronounced it with a short “e”, to rhyme with “trestle”. (Born early 1900s, UK.)
It hadn’t occurred to me that the See-sul pronunciation existed.
When I think of somebody named “Sesscill” I think of somebody wearing a monocle, a goatee and using a cigarette holder. Would somebody check for me? 
Interestingly, it’s spelled Cecil but it’s actually pronounced like Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz.
Cecil is second cousin to Sade and a distant relative of Ralph Fiennes.
I always thought it rhymed with cesspool. Apparently I was mistaken.