The bizarre pronunciation of certain English surnames

[DesertDog]

@Senegoid

And in Texas, a twisted wire with little points sticking out of (commonly used as fencing material) is called “bar-war” (both syllables rhyme more-or-less with “car” or “tar”), or maybe more like “bahr-wahr” or “bawr-wawr”

I’m not from Texas but I’ve never heard it pronounced that way. Bob Wahr on the other hand…

[Colophon]

@BwanaBob

My often pasted quote from Wikipedia because its needed so often:

The street’s name is pronounced “HOW-stən”, unlike the city of Houston in Texas, which is pronounced “HYOO-stən”. This is because the street was named for William Houstoun, whereas the city was named for Sam Houston.

Also the street predates the founding of the city of Houston.

That doesn’t necessarily follow. There’s a set of streets in my town that are named after people associated with the Gunpowder Plot (one of whom apocryphally lived nearby). One of them is Ryves Avenue, which I had only ever heard pronounced to rhyme with “knives” but I have since found ought was named after someone whose name is pronounced “Reeves”.

[CaptMurdock]

@DSYoungEsq

Then there is Cairo, Illinois. Pronounced KAY-roh. Like the corn syrup.

And Genoa, Nevada. Pronounced Geh-NO-ah.

Americans love to mess up words. It’s like an artform for us.

In Long Beach, California, there’s a street that a Spanish-speaking personally would naturally (and correctly) pronounce “he-MEN-oh”. However, almost any longtime LB resident would look at you strangely and ask what you mean; when you reply that you’re referring to the street about four blocks west of Pacific Coast Highway, he’ll reply, “oh, you mean EX-im-en-oh.”

(Ximeno).