# Do Brits sometimes change pronunciation of their names for social climbing?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-brits-sometimes-change-pronunciation-of-their-names-for-social-climbing/337504
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 28, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-brits-sometimes-change-pronunciation-of-their-names-for-social-climbing/337504 "2005-12-28T22:41:51Z")
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### Author: ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-brits-sometimes-change-pronunciation-of-their-names-for-social-climbing/337504/6 "2005-12-29T00:15:12Z")

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> [@GorillaMan](#):
>
> I’ve never come across such examples in real life, and suspect most cases are anecdotal or urban-mythical. There’s certainly real names with standard pronuncations which would give credence to such stories (Featherstonehaugh and St John are two which come to mind, being pronounced _fan-shaw_ and _sin-jun_). And both are fairly upper-class names, again tying in with the social-climber aspect.

_Fan-shaw_ is the most common pronunciation of Feathersonehaugh. But some branches of the family use _Fes-ton-hay_ and others _Feer-ston-haw_.

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