Worcester is pronounced Wooster in the UK too, so this feels entirely correct to me.
There’s a town in NJ near to NYC named “Bogota”, but it’s pronounced “bow-go-tah” instead of “bow-go-TAH”, as is the capital of Columbia. Since I took Spanish long before I moved to Jersey, I was continually stumbling over that one.
(No, didn’t live there, and I have left NJ and am now in PA, where I get to deal with Oz and Mastriano.)
I know the guys that wrote that ad! It’s still one of my favorites.
There is a town in New Jersey called Moorestown named after a guy named Moore.
There is a town in New Jersey named Morristown named after a guy named Morris.
Both are pronounced the same.
(Both like you think the second one would be pronounced)
Leicester Square in London is pronounced “lester” square.
Quite a few around here:
- Boise, ID
- Moscow, ID
- Weippe, ID
- Kooskia, ID
- Kamiah, ID
- Weiser, ID
- Coeur d’Alene, ID
- Pend Oreille, ID
- Athol, ID
Wait, I’m the one that mispronounces the last one. 
[cue Beavis and Butthead laughing] Heh-heh…
Interesting! The original Suffolk and Norfolk in England are pronounced SUH-fook and NOR-fook (like book)
I live near Mickler’s Landing Beach. It’s pronounced “mike-lers.” The family (who still live here) corrects anyone who pronounces it “mick-lers.”
And here I thought that Kansas was the only state with an Athol.
Turns out there are at least five states with one: Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, South Dakota.
New York originally had an Athol, but it was renamed to Thurman.
Dante, VA (rhymes with “can’t”).
I guarantee you, the one in ID is the biggest Athol!
And London has “Euston Road”, which is pronounced like the city Houston (or exactly enough that I couldn’t tell the difference when taking the Tube announcement’s accent into account.) I wonder if there is a city somewhere with a Houston street that is pronounced and spelled like the city.
Some of the variations slip into shades of local accent, it seems to me, as much as sharp distinctions of pronunciation. No doubt I’m not stating this in the correct academic terms, but consider Nashville: locals often say “NASH-vul,” with a strong stress on the first syllable and a schwa in the second. But “Nash-ville” is perhaps more commonly heard both there and elsewhere, with approximately equal stress on both syllables (a spondee) and a short “i” in the second. I’m not certain, but I think people with a certain type of rural-inflected southern accent are more likely to say it the first way, and everybody else, the second way, whether they’re locals or not.
Then there’s Louisville, KY: “LOU-a-vul” to most locals, no? “Louey-ville” to others. Is this a difference in pronunciation, or merely accent?
I lived in the Midwest long enough that I use a noticably flat short “a” sound. The way I say the second syllable of “Atlanta” is very different than the way locals say it. But I don’t think I’m using a variant pronunciation; it’s just the funny way I talk.
The original Atholl is in Scotland.
The Atholl Highlanders is the only private regiment in Europe. It is commanded by the Duke of Atholl and is not part of the British Army.
I lived in Moscow, ID for a couple of years, so can pronounce all of those.
And lets not forget the person with my favorite name: Athol Fugard
Old Massachusetts joke:
Endicott Peabody (Governor of Massachusetts in the mid-1960s) is the only man to have four towns named after him:
Endicott
Peabody
Marblehead
Athol
Do you happen to go around spray-painting graffiti and causing general mayhem in public?