Side-factoid: A Canadian actor who used to appear quite frequently in British TV and movies was Cec (pronounced IIRC “Cess”) Linder
I too would rhyme the first vowel sound in “Montgomery” with the first vowel in “Rommel”, but when saying it quickly the two do merge for me. I wouldn’t say either one is incorrect, just as I wouldn’t be prescriptive about how to pronounce “Cecil”.
That’s the only way I’ve ever heard it pronounced. I did a “pronounce” search for Cecil B. DeMille because I thought that one might be different but, no, the pronunciation given was “see-sill”.
I’m pretty sure there was Sess-Sill Fielder of Baseball.
I just checked, and it should be “see-sill” Fielder according to the infallible Internet. LOL
Wait, it isn;t “keckle”?
Kenobi_65 checked it upthread with a more official source and it is, indeed, sess-ul, which is how I remember it.
Thanks! I have also heard “sess-ul” B Demille. I wonder if that is actually correct and not my source.
Also mentioned in this thread. Also by kenobi_65, though not as an official source. Also, in Cecil B Demented, it’s pronounced Sess-ul.
Here’s an actual film of Cecil B. Demille, which starts out with him pronouncing his own name. He says, “SESS-il.” Cecil B. Demille for the March of Dimes - YouTube
So, it’s official. My source sucks! LOL
What is the “more official”, and obviously BETTER source? I need to use that in the future.
I mean, you can scroll up.
Baseball Reference. It’s one of the best sites for baseball statistics and information, and in my experience, anything that’s on there is well-vetted. (They have parallel sites for football, basketball, hockey, etc.)
At the top of Fielder’s page is biographical information; you may need to click on a link to unfold all of it, but one of the things which is included (which BR typically does for players with unusual names) is a phonetic spelling of his first name.
The Simpsons featured Cecil Terwillager, Sideshow Bob’s brother, and he does use the short e (skip to 1:35).
I’m kinda concerned for the the name ‘Cedric’ now.
I’m American, but I agree with all of this.
And yet a third pronunciation…
that one would confuse me as well. different c’s or same c’s. english is a mess.
Can we make the Cecil Run in 12 parsecs?
The Gascoyne-Cecils here always say it as ‘Sissal’.