# Pronunciation of "Ralph Fiennes" name
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 18, 2002, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455 "2002-08-18T07:12:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@orr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orr)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2002, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/1 "2002-08-18T07:12:16Z")
I’m not sure if this belongs here in GQ or in MPSIMS. I figured I’d put it here since I’m pretty sure it has a definite answer.
I was wondering about the pronunciation of Ralph Fiennes first name. It seems like everytime I see one of his movies being promoted on TV, it’s pronounced “Rafe” instead of “Ralph”. What am I missing here? Is it some sort of regional pronunciation from wherever he’s from? His brother’s name is Joseph, but I never hear it pronounced “Jofes”…
Someone in the know please rid me of my ignorance. This little niggling question has been bugging me for a while now.
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### Author:  [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2002, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/2 "2002-08-18T09:34:39Z")
Yes it’s pronounced “Rafe”. It’s the Anglo-Saxon pronunciation. The English composer Ralph Vaughan-Williams is another whose name was pronounced the same way.
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### Author:  [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2002, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/3 "2002-08-18T09:45:44Z")
[IMDB trivia about Ralph Fiennes.](http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Fiennes,+Ralph)
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> Name pronounced “Rafe Fines.”
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2002, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/4 "2002-08-18T14:54:14Z")
The name “Ralph” is also pronounced “Rafe” in Gilbert and Sullivan’s **H.M.S. Pinafore**.
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### Author:  [@orr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orr)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2002, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/5 "2002-08-18T17:27:29Z")
Ah, I see. Thanks for clearing that up, people.
And to think… I even checked IMDB, and I missed that little tidbit about his name. I wasn’t aware that individual actors had trivia. I thought only movies had trivia attached.
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### Author:  [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/6 "2002-08-19T03:50:16Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by orr \*
> \*\*And to think… I even checked IMDB, and I missed that little tidbit about his name. I wasn’t aware that individual actors had trivia. I thought only movies had trivia attached. \*\*
IIRC, trivia and biography of an actor on IMDB link to the same information.
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### Author:  [@RussellM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RussellM)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2002, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/7 "2002-08-19T09:14:23Z")
**Jabba**
> [@](#):
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> Yes it’s pronounced “Rafe”. It’s the Anglo-Saxon pronunciation.
Just to add a little to the confusion. It’s not always pronounced that way, here in the UK. My next door neighbour is Ralph, pronounced “Ralf”
Russell
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2002, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/8 "2002-08-19T13:08:05Z")
That pretentious git drives me mad. In America, “Ralph” is pronounced “Ralph,” and “Fiennes” is pronounced “Fiennes,” not “Fines.” But rather than take any regional differences into account and listen to this explanation, he gets all huffy and holier-than-thou about it. I just hope I meet him someday and he asks me how I am, so I can say, “Fienne, thanks—how are you?”
—Eve (but it’s _pronounced_ “Coo-Coo- the Bird Girl”)
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### Author:  [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2002, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/9 "2002-08-19T13:23:00Z")
Hey Ralphie, ya won soice on tha dowg !
Actually _darllllling_, he’s an **Ac** -_Tourrr_! One is expected to bow and scrape accordingly.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2002, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/10 "2002-08-19T14:01:52Z")
Oh, come on. It’s not as if he picked his own name… it was given to him, aberrant pronunciation and all, by his parents. He’s entitled to have it pronounced the right way, that’s only common courtesy… if people went round calling me “Step Hen W’rriguhutuh”, the way my name’s actually spelled, I’d feel free to correct them.
(Ralph Fiennes may, of course, be a pretentious git for other reasons.)
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2002, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/11 "2002-08-19T14:24:00Z")
The two different pronunciations of “Ralph” reflects early variations in pronunciations in certain words which dates back to Elizabethan times. There was a lot more variety in spelling back then, reflecting the different regional variations in dialect and pronunciation. There were several words that were sometimes pronunced with an “l” by some speakers, without an “l” by others. Although in most cases that variation gradually disapeared and one pronunciation became standard, the two pronunciations of “Ralph” has survived, probably because of family traditions.
For example, in Shakespeare’s plays, the French Dauphin was consistently referred to as the “Dolphin,” but it seems likely that whether the “l” was pronounced would depend on the individual speaker.
Here’s a little comment on the issue from the the Arden Shakespeare’s text of _Henry VI, Part I_:
> [@](#):
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> In the sixteenth and earlier seventeenth centuries, English spellings of this title and of the aquatic mammal from whose name it derives were not clearly differentiated and both always included the ‘l’. That differentiation - the one now in standard usage - began in the 1670s, when English orthography, retaining ‘dolphin’ for the sea beast, followed French precedent and assigned ‘dauphin’ to the prince. Kökeritz (311) and Cercignani (354) both class ‘dolphin’ as a word which in Shakespeare’s time the sounding of the ‘l’ was optional: other words in Shakespeare similarly spelt in the early editions with optional ‘l’ include ‘sa(l)vage’, ‘alab(l)aster’ and ‘sa(l)tiers’, which are habitually modernised without it. _2H6_ 4.1.31-8 offers the relevant analogue of ‘Walter/water’ (whether or not the ‘l’ is sounded being crucial to the prophecy that Suffolk will die ‘by water’), **while the variable modern English pronunciation of the name Ralph is reflected in the curency of the two spellings, ‘Ralph’ and 'Rafe.'**
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### Author:  [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2002, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/12 "2002-08-19T15:17:34Z")
Good work, **Piper**!
I’m sure you’re right, **Steve**. Wouldn’t be surprised if it were a family name (including pronunciation). Perhaps unfortunate for him it fits with the stereotype of (some) actors as pretentious prats – or not. He does come across as just _a little_ up his own arse.
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### Author:  [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2002, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-ralph-fiennes-name/124455/13 "2002-08-19T15:58:28Z")
IIRC, Cecil wrote a column responding to someone wanting to change their name and the legal hassles invovled (can’t find it in the archives though). He said a less hassling tactic would be to keep the original spelling and pronounce it however you want (which you’re allowed to do). He gave a rather ridiculous example, like if your name was John Smith, you could pronounce it “Santa Claus” if you wanted to. Just expect to get a lot of aggravated looks when filling out forms.