American exceptionalism strikes again! 
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You win the thread.
Oops.
Sorry.
That video proves Ed Zotti can’t be Cecil Adams, as the world’s smartest human wouldn’t pronounce their own name wrong.
Unless that’s part of the misdirection.
It’s his name. Any way he pronounces it would be correct.
Keh-e-kill Aa-dee-am-see isn’t out of the picture. It has a nice alien feel, like J’onn J’onzz.
Anyway I say it I call @Cecil_Adams my good friend.
Just chat, chat, chat. All the time.
Man is just relentless.
Believe it or not, this question has existed almost as long as the SDMB itself.
Which way is the default way for you? Because for me, I can’t tell if I hear “Seh” or “See” in the first syllable more often. I say “Seh-suhl” much more often, I think, but I go back and forth. I’m probably influenced by “Cecil B. Demented.”
ETA: Oh, wait. Cecil Fielder. I’ve always said that with “seh” in the first syllable. Though it seems a quick online search says “See-suhl.” Weird.
His page on Baseball Reference (which is, on the whole, pretty authoritative) gives a pronunciation of “SESS-il,” which is how I remember it being pronounced when he played with the Tigers in the early '90s.
Ok, thank you. I’m not going crazy. Or at least if I am, that’s not a sign of it. I was really starting to question my pronunciation.
I was going to reply, “How is this a question? Many times, Cecil referred to himself as ‘Cece’ or ‘Unca Cece’. ‘Cece’ should be pronounced ‘seess’ or ‘cease’, which implies ‘see-sil’. The man has spoken.”
Then I did due diligence and searched the Straight Dope for ‘Cece’. Found 20 pages. On none of them does Cecil refer to himself as ‘Cece’ – in all cases somebody else calls him that. Usually, it’s somebody submitting a question. In just one case, a note from the researcher Bibliophage uses the term.
So, twenty people, including Bibliophage have called Cecil ‘Cece’. The Great Man has never seen fit to rebuke these people for this, nor has he offered any other pronunciation. Trials in Scotland can end in a third verdict “not proven”. I think that applies here: It sure looks like his name is pronounced ‘see-sil’ (‘seess’ for short), but it’s not proven.
I always read ‘Cece’ as C.C.
I know, I know.
I believe that was my 16th post.
Well, I’m in good company it seems.
Upon watching the clip thoughtfully provided by jnglmassiv I realized Ed is pronouncing the Master’s name as “Cee-suhl.” Since I have no doubt that Cecil would have beaten Little Ed into the ground for mispronouncing his name on TV, we have to accept Ed’s pronunciation as definitive.
Glad I read through the whole thread because I was going to point this out, too. Plus, TubaDiva always pronouced his name as See-sil, or Unca Sees. That was good enough for me.
I thought it was Inglethorpe Dinwiddy.
Why not “Uncle Sess”? Or even “Sessie”, rhyming with Jesse Ventura?