I was on the phone this afternoon with a Bluecross-Carefirst rep re some medical bills for my daughter I needed clarified. Judging by her voice she was African American and she introduced herself as “Pruh-sef-fon-nay”. I did not inquire re her pronunciation as how you pronounce your name is largely your business.
Is it more likely that this is simply her call center work code name, and she’s not sure how to pronounce it, or this is a genuine “Persephone” simply pronounced a bit creatively?
Ask Brett Favre, he might know.
A proper name may be pronounced in whatever way the person with the name chooses. I’ve known brothers who pronounced their last name completely differently. It didn’t even sound as if it started with the same letter. I also had a friend whose name was spelled S-H-E-L-I-A. But she pronounced it the same way that all the girls named Sheila did. The British don’t pronounce anything the way it’s spelled. But it turns out lovely.
I misspelled my name for the first 45 years of my life, according to my birth certificate.
I wouldn’t be surprised if her name was really “Prusefonay.” Sounds like something that could have been made up to give her a “unique” name… and it also makes me sad that great classical names are being ruined because someone wanted her daughter to have a “unique” name… that also rhymed with the other daughters, Shanaynay and Unikway.
Maybe Pruh-sef-fon-nay is the daughter of Duehs and Duhmeter.
Ever watch that episode of “The Golden Girls” where they were talking to this man (maybe a mortician) whose last name was Pfeiffer, and had to tell the women that his name was Pee-feiffer, the P wasn’t silent.
I’m going to take a wild ass guess, based on a lot of kids that I know with unique names.
I am betting the mother heard of Persophone, either from Greek mythology or just from a movie or she met someone named that, or whatever. She probably decided to jazz it up ghetto style by changing the pronunciation to something more ghetto-fab. I would bet she was going for Per-seff-fo-NAY.
I have posted this on this board before, because when I first heard it, it was so jarring, but now I am used to it; some black Southerners pronounce ‘computer’ ‘comprooter’.
I wonder if she had the kind of accent that changed PERsephone into PRUHsephone. Add on the ghetto fab pronunciation and you have PruhseffoNAY.
eta: Captain Midnight, that was so funny. He pronounced it ‘puh-fifer’, right? Maybe it was ‘pee-fifer’. Either way, funny.
How is the nay any different than how Persephone is normally pronounced? It’s Per-seph-o-nay originally.
“Mr. P’feiffer, now about the p’funeral…”
I would ordinarily say Persphonee. But I don’t know anything.
I’d say per-SEF-o-nee.
When reading it, I have to fight to keep from pronouncing it “Purse-a-phone” in my head.
Same with Penelope, which really ought to rhyme with “envelope”.
Whoever came up with that system of transliterating Greek apparently didn’t realize how often it would trigger the “silent e” rules. If they’d just standardized it as “ie” or “y” instead - Persephonie, or Penelopy - it would be much easier to pronounce correctly.
/grump
It’s pər-sĕf’ə-nē.
I know this dude Stephen who had a French-sounding last name. Got into media/pundrity and all of a sudden started changing the pronunciation too seem more Americany. Works, though–he really exudes an image of truthiness.
My fiance’ has an uncommon yet familiar name (it’s rare to meet someone with this name but everyone has heard of someone with this name). Whereas she is Italian, the name is more commonly associated with the french pronunciation. So when meeting new people she introduces herself with the French version rather than the Italian (which her family and our close friends all use) just because it’s easier.
I love casual racism, don’t you?
Only when it’s pronounced rack-is-em.
Like other posters have stated, I always pronounce it with ‘nee’ at the end.
But that is one of those words that I have read, but rarely hear, so I could be wrong.
ETA: Maggie, the funny thing about ‘Penelope’ is that it is one of those words that I heard a lot before I remember reading it. So it took quite some time for me to put two and two together and realize that this exotic name ‘Penelope’ that I was reading was actually Pennellopee, which I had heard dozens of times.