# Pronuciation/ethnicity of a surname **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 27, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronuciation-ethnicity-of-a-surname/431410 "2007-12-27T21:47:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronuciation-ethnicity-of-a-surname/431410/1 "2007-12-27T21:47:27Z")
What are the pronunciation and ethnicity of the name “Yurkiw”? For what it’s worth, the person lives in Alberta, Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2007, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronuciation-ethnicity-of-a-surname/431410/2 "2007-12-27T21:56:06Z")
Dunno how it’s pronounced, but FWIW found [this](http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/2003/170323.shtml): > [@](#): > > …The New York native, son of Anna Yurkiw of Astoria and the late George Yurkiw, who immigrated here from the Lviv area after World War II… [Lviv](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv) being a “major city in Western Ukraine”. ---
**Author:** ![trupa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@trupa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trupa)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronuciation-ethnicity-of-a-surname/431410/3 "2007-12-27T23:06:59Z")
And there is a huge contingent of the Ukrainian diaspora living in Alberta. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronuciation-ethnicity-of-a-surname/431410/4 "2007-12-28T11:24:31Z")
Just an informed guess, but Yurkiw looks like an anglicised spelling, so it should be pronounced just like it’s spelled. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronuciation-ethnicity-of-a-surname/431410/5 "2007-12-28T12:19:58Z")
[QUOTE=naita] Just an informed guess, but Yurkiw looks like an anglicised spelling, so it should be pronounced just like it’s spelled. [/QUOTE] You could get hurt doing that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronuciation-ethnicity-of-a-surname/431410/6 "2007-12-28T13:23:13Z")
I’d guess “YUR-kyoo”. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronuciation-ethnicity-of-a-surname/431410/7 "2007-12-28T15:46:08Z")
I’ve noticed a lot of the Ukrainian names in Canada seem to pave passed through a German transliteration phase–Romanow, for instance, instead of Romanov. Although apparently it’s only Canadians who pronounce Ukrainian and Polish names as if they were English: “Romanow” rhymes with “my big toe”. 🙂 I work with a guy whose family name is “Nowicki” and we all pronounce it “no-wicky” even though I asked him about it and it’s properly pronounced “no-veet-ski”. I wonder wether “Yurkiw” was meant to be pronounced “Yurkeev”?