# How do you pronounce Suhr? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 5, 2012, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732 "2012-09-05T12:06:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CheeseDonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@CheeseDonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheeseDonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/1 "2012-09-05T12:06:01Z")
As in baseball player Gus Suhr. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/2 "2012-09-05T13:02:37Z")
From [this link](http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/05/18/daily-madden-sf-police-chief-clears-up-suhr-baseball-link/) it looks to be soo-er. The pronunciation seems to have been later changed by the family. SF Police Chief Suer was related and the following is extracted from the interview with him at above link. > [@](#): > > “When did you change your name, the pronunciation … from \ to \?” asked Madden. “I knew your grandfather and he was Gus, or sometimes Gussy, \” ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/3 "2012-09-05T14:54:22Z")
Pole vaulter Jenn Suhr, who won the gold medal in London, pronounces it “Sir.” ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/4 "2012-09-05T17:02:43Z")
Old ball players’ surnames were not know with exactitude, in the era before radio broadcasts of games. Players were talked about based on newspaper accounts of their performances, and local people adopted their own pronunciations, whicn may or may not have bee agreed upon in any given bar. It is not unusual in America for a certain surname to be pronounced differently in different parts of the country. There are several recent ball players with surnames that are pronounced by broadcasters differently from the way kids I grew up with pronounced their own names which were spelled the same. The White Sox have a rookie catcher named Hector Gimenez, whose name is pronounced “JIM-i-nezz”. John Kerr, Clark Kerr and Deborah Kerr all pronounced their last names differently. As did MLB players Joe Lefebvre, Jim Lefebvre and Bill Lefebvre. I know relatives of Congressman Pete Hoekstra who pronounce their own names differently than than I hear on the news. My dad rhymed Gus Suhr with “poor”. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/5 "2012-09-05T17:29:06Z")
There was a guy in my boot camp company named Suhr. He told me the correct pronunciation was “Sir,” but for Navy purposes he was telling everyone it was pronounced “Shir” (rhymes with “sir”). Said it wouldn’t seem right for officers to be calling _him_ “sir”… ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/6 "2012-09-05T17:30:51Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > My dad rhymed Gus Suhr with “poor”. I assume you’re pronouncing that as “poo” with an R on the end? To me, _poor_ is pronounced identically to _pore_ and _pour_… ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/7 "2012-09-05T17:40:51Z")
Sewer. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/8 "2012-09-05T19:24:44Z")
I’m not familiar with the name, but, having taken high school German, my instinct is to pronounce it to rhyme with the German words/names Uhr or Ruhr—basically, like a one-syllable version of “sewer.” ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/9 "2012-09-05T19:34:38Z")
I can imagine the Army rejecting an enlisted man whose last name is “Sir.” Just too damned complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/10 "2012-09-05T22:56:34Z")
At various times, I’ve known of the name Koch to be pronounced as either Cook, Cock, or Coch (to rhyme with “botch”). That is, at least, if we trust the pronunciations by TV/radio newscasters when they mention certain prominent persons of that name. The “Cook” version comes from a kid of that name when I was in jr. hi school. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/11 "2012-09-05T23:16:45Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > I can imagine the Army rejecting an enlisted man whose last name is “Sir.” Just too damned complicated. Major Major Major did alright. He made major. (I guess that was the Air Force, though.) ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/12 "2012-09-05T23:49:33Z")
My goddaughter (and her father’s family) prounounce it _Sir_. They hail from Nebraska and Kansas. ---
**Author:** ![Obeseus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/13 "2012-09-06T03:26:42Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > At various times, I’ve known of the name Koch to be pronounced as either Cook, Cock, or Coch (to rhyme with “botch”) And I know people with that spelling who pronounce it ‘coke’ & ‘coach.’ ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-suhr/633732/14 "2012-09-06T09:51:46Z")
The origin of the name is undoubtedly German. The German pronunciation would be: soo-er (but with the “s” being pronounced like the “z” in cozy, thus: zoo-er).