Yeah, there are a wide variety of accents in the UK too (I can think of 8 distinct English ones off the top of my head), but things generally sound the same for us. As for what’s prettier, I’m a tad biased towards UK pronunciations. Anything else just wouldn’t be ‘normal’ for me I’ll preface this by saying I’m British, thus not 100% sure on some of the American things I’ve listed. [name_m]Feel[/name_m] free to correct me…
There are certain names where the A is pronounced differently- in [name_m]Alexander[/name_m], [name_u]Francis[/name_u], [name_m]Grant[/name_m] etc. I believe that [name_m]Alexander[/name_m], for example, would be al-ix-[name_f]ANN[/name_f]-der across the board in the US, just as it is in [name_f]Scotland[/name_f], the [name_u]North[/name_u] and the South [name_u]West[/name_u] here (and probably other areas too), but in a lot of English accents, it’d be like al-ix-ARN-der, with a drawn out ‘a’.
A more even US/UK split would be the ‘o’ sound, such as in [name_m]Tom[/name_m], [name_m]Don[/name_m], [name_m]Colin[/name_m], [name_m]Bob[/name_m]. It’s very short in most (all?) British accents, but it kind of sounds like a longer nasal ‘[name_m]AH[/name_m]’ sound in the American accents I’ve heard. Thus, I’ve heard some Americans say [name_m]Don[/name_m] sounds exactly the same as [name_f]Dawn[/name_f], but it’s not so over here.
Some names sound completely different in the US, but most just sound like someone with a slight accent. I find that, when saying a name, Americans say them a little higher, like they’re asking a question. With British accents, it’s more like a statement. That probably makes no sense, but I’m just going on what I’ve heard
I wouldn’t say there’s much difference in accents with most of the names in your sig. I’ve heard [name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f] said as will-uh-meen-uh in US TV programmes before, and I think we’d say the ‘hel’ a little more clearly. [name_m]Otto[/name_m], [name_m]Monty[/name_m] & [name_m]Foster[/name_m] would follow the nasal ‘[name_m]AH[/name_m]’ I mentioned above, making [name_m]Otto[/name_m] rhyme with auto in the US I believe, but [name_m]Otto[/name_m]/auto sound different here. [name_u]August[/name_u]: [name_m]AH[/name_m]-gust (US)/OR-gust (UK).
Others I’ve come across (I know it’s not univeral and there are variations within our countries):
[name_m]Graham[/name_m]: grey-um/gram
[name_m]Duke[/name_m]: dyook/dook
[name_m]Wesley[/name_m]: wez-lee/wess-lee
[name_f]Tara[/name_f]: tar-ruh/tare-uh
[name_f]Clara[/name_f]: clar-ruh/claire-uh
[name_m]Anthony[/name_m]: ant-uh-nee/anth-uh-nee
[name_m]Louis[/name_m]: loo-ee/lewis
[name_u]Evelyn[/name_u]: eev-lin/ev-uh-lin
[name_m]Harry[/name_m]: hah-ree/hair-ee
[name_m]Aaron[/name_m]: ah-run (doesn’t sound like [name_f]Erin[/name_f]!)/air-un