A British friend spelled his name, “Featherstonehaugh.”
He pronounced it “Fanshaw.”
Here is how Nguyen is pronounced in Vietnamese. Click on the second link. (I have no idea what the heck that first US English pronunciation is supposed to be. I’ve never heard anyone say it like that.) It is not “win” in the native language.
Re: Meagher and Colquhoun. That’s the way they’re supposed to be pronounced in Ireland and Scotland. The OP gives an exception for some native pronunciations but not others? Another Scottish name is Menzies, often pronounced “Mingiz.” You see, the “z” was originally a “ȝ” (yogh), but replaced with z in modern English.
The name Koch. In German it’s kox, where x = the ch in “loch.” I have seen this as “cook,” “koch” (ch as in cheese), but never “cock.”
I have a friend whose name is Kerstin. It’s pronounced “ShasTEEN”.
She says it’s Scandinavian. I don’t get it but hey, it’s her name.
I have friends who named their daughter Sara - except they insist it be pronounced ** Sah**-rah instead of the common pronounciation Say-rah… The kid is four years old now, and for the rest of her life will be correcting people’s pronounciation of her name. I think it’s a dirty trick to play, but hey, not my kid.
I would never think to pronounce that in any way different from the name Sarah, which would be “sah-rah”. I’ve never heard the “more common” “say-rah”. Where are you from?
Jenna, pronounced as if it were Gina
Alyssa pronounced as if it were Alicia
Joan pronouned as if it were Joanne
The problem with these is that there is an accepted way to pronounce these names, and yet these parents chose a different way. How are the rest of us supposed to know?
Sara or Sarah is generally pronounced as Sare-rah. the r sound is in both syllables.
The U.S. Although about 20 years of my life was spent living in various other countries (not Canada, however.) The friends in question live in the UK. Maybe there’s some sort of Brit/Canadian difference in pronounciation I’m not aware of.
I know or have known several Sara/Sarahs, and they’ve all pronounced in “say-rah.”
“Sah-rah” is more common in the UK*; “Sare-rah” is more common in the US.
Don’t get me started on “Maurice” and “Cheryl”.
*But they do also use “Sare-rah”.
Maybe it’s the Philly accent, but around here Sarah is pronounced with a short A in the first syllable (like “cat”) – “Sa-ruh” – or “Serra”. “Say-ra” sounds strange to me.
Not in this neck of the woods. Beauchamp is a fairly common name here, and I’ve never heard it pronounced anything but bo - shamp.
We get a lot of French-Canadian names up here that you’d never know how to pronounce them from the spelling. Softening of any “d” sound is very common - DesJardins is Jis-jardins, Bolduc is Boljuk, for example.
And then you get into the Finnish names, which are dead-easy to pronounce if you grew up with them, but people from out of the area put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. It’s on the first syllable, not the second - Kinnonen is KIN o nen, not ki NON en. Lepponen, Kivela, the same thing. I get mixed up with words that follow that spelling when they’re not Finnish - I always have to think about the pronunciation of Sonoma, for example. It sounds like it should be SON-o-ma in my brain, but I know it’s so-NOM-a. And then there’s the old joke about the Finn who drives an IMP-a-la to work every day.
I had a good laugh when Mr. Athena once took a message for me. “Sue Maki” called me and I wasn’t there. When I got home and looked at the note, it told me to give “Sue MacKay” a call back. Took me a while, but then I figured out who it was, and laughed my ass off. There’s about a gazillion Makis around here, it’s a very common name. Only a non-Yooper would assume it was MacKay. It’d be sort of like misspelling the name Jones or Smith in the non-UP world.
yeah, but why? Beauchamp
I guess with a silent ‘u’ and silent ‘p’ and an ‘a’ pronounced like a ‘u’ - but I’ve never seen that in any other word. Do you know where that name is originated?
Another weird name - the old penis showing Packer QB should be pronounced Fav rey - not farv
Larry Swindle – who insisted his last name was “Swin-DELL”
A lot of these “odd” pronunciations are traditional English pronunciations going back to the Norman era –
Beauchamp - Beecham
Magdelene - Maudlin
Featherstonehaugh - Fanshaw
Cholmondeley - Chumley
St. John - Sinjin
St. Clair - Sinclair
Fotheringay - Fungy
Leominster - Lemster
Milngavie - Mulguy
Caius - Keys
Gateacre - Gattackar
Colquhoon - Cahoon
Beaulieu - Bewley
Mainwaring - Mannering
Menzies - Mingiss
Urquhart - Urkett
Cockburn - Coburn
Dalziel - Deal
Worcester - Wooster
Woolfhardisworthy - Woolsey
Ruthven - Rivven
Bethlehem - Bedlam
Belvoir - Beaver
Marjoribanks - Marchbanks
Weymiss - Weems
The one I can’t get myself to say is to pronounce “Davies” the same as “Davis.” It just seems wrong to me.
Janet pronounced zha-NAY
Talliaferro - pronounced as Tolliver.
Throat Warbler Mangrove. Come on, people!
I’ve known two people named Nguyen. One pronounced it Gwen, the other pronounced it New One. Both were born in the US.
You know that. I know that. *He *didn’t know that. Or didn’t *want *to know that. Which is even harder to overcome.
I can’t believe I forgot that one. It’s one of my favorites.
Also –
Pepys - Peeps
“Say-rah”? “Sah-rah”? We in Southern Ontario would pronounce it “Serra” or “Sairra” (same pronunciation) unless otherwise advised