Following on from another thread, I thought it’d be interesting to discuss how names are pronounced differently in the UK/USA/[name]Canada[/name]/Aus etc.
We’ve had the discussion on [name]Sara[/name]/[name]Kara[/name]/[name]Tara[/name], apparently prn. sare-uh, kare-uh, tare-uh in the US, but I found a few others:
[name]Graham[/name] - gray-um and gram
[name]Anthony[/name] - ant-ony and anth-ony
[name]Evelyn[/name] - eve-lyn and ever-lyn
[name]Louis[/name] - loo-ee and lewis
[name]Aaron[/name] - ah-run and air-un
[name]Craig[/name] - crayg and creg
[name]Elias[/name] & [name]Naomi[/name] - I wasn’t too sure on these, but I’ve seen pronunciations given as eh-lee-us and nigh-oh-me. I don’t know if that’s a different accent or someone saying it wrong? I’d always prn. them eh-lie-us and nay-oh-me…
So, correct me if the above are wrong. I don’t doubt there’ll be regional variations too. But please come up with loads more!
The big one I think of is [name]Elena[/name]. Eh-lay-nah? Eh-len-ah? I pronounce [name]Elias[/name] Eh-[name]LEE[/name]-us and [name]Naomi[/name] Nay-oh-me
See, even here in the US there can be huge differences. I am from NY and my fiance is from [name]Texas[/name], when he says “pen”, it ALWAYS sounds like “pin” to me (they sound completely different when I say them). Well, my father’s name happens to be “[name]Ken[/name]”, so it’s always entertaining to me to hear him say it because it sounds like “kin”.
For me, [name]Sara[/name] and [name]Cara[/name] are sare-ah and care-ah but [name]Tara[/name] is tar-ah, I couldn’t tell you why, that’s just how I prefer them.
For me, [name]Elena[/name] is always el-ay-na, I think I pronounce most -ena names are “ay-na”.
I would automatically say [name]Ell[/name]-eye-us for [name]Elias[/name], but that could be because I know several [name]Elijah[/name] / [name]Eli[/name]'s, so that could effect my pronunciation.
[name]Harry[/name] sticks in my mind, since Americans pronounce it like hairy. I remember watching the film [name]True[/name] Lies when I was a child and asking my dad why the main character’s name was Hairy.
I’ve also noticed that Americans pronounce [name]Maurice[/name] as mə-[name]REES[/name] and [name]Bernard[/name] as bər-NARD (instead of MAW-ris and BUR-nərd, how they are pronounced in the UK). I wonder if that comes from French influence.
[name]Graham[/name] - gray-um
[name]Anthony[/name] - If it has an “h” in it I pronounce it “anth-ony”. [name]Antony[/name] is “ant-ony”.
[name]Evelyn[/name] - EV-uh-lin
[name]Louis[/name] - This French spelling is “loo-ee” and [name]Lewis[/name] is “loo-is”.
[name]Aaron[/name] - “air-un”
[name]Craig[/name] - “crayg”
[name]Elias[/name] - “eh-lie-us”
[name]Naomi[/name] - “nay-oh-me”
I don’t understand why some people pronounce [name]Caroline[/name] with a “lyn” at the end instead of “line”. That’s why we have [name]Carolyn[/name], isn’t it?
[name]How[/name] do you say [name]Harry[/name] in the UK? Lol, with my NY accent, it REALLY sounds like hairy, lol, I can’t even make my mouth say it any other way. :lol:
lol, if the first syllable is pronounced like car then it would be like Hare [name]Krishna[/name].
The way [name]Hermione[/name] says it in the [name]Harry[/name] [name]Potter[/name] movies reminds me more of the first syllable of habitat hah-ree rather than hair-ee
In the UK is [name]Evelyn[/name]'s first syllable pronounced like [name]Eve[/name] for both the male and female version. I’ve heard [name]Evelyn[/name] Waugh’s name pronounced [name]Eve[/name]-lin, but I’ve never heard the name otherwise in any [name]Brit[/name] accent. It’s never pronounced Eh-vuh-lin?
Also, I’ve often wondered if there’s another stress on the first part of [name]Gwen[/name]. I pretty much just say it like when with a tiny g sound at the beginning. Across the pond is the G said with more force or as it’s own syllable? I was watching Torchwood yesterday and I swear her name sounds so different in her accent (Welsh? not sure) than it does from other people I’ve heard say it.
Yeah, [name]Evelyn[/name] could be pronounced both ways here, but I’ve only heard it said ‘eh-ver-lin’ twice- in the Mummy films and on a girl who was the daughter of an Aussie lady. [name]Evelyn[/name]'s on my girl list and I say it ‘eve-lin’, as would most people in my area.
As for [name]Gwen[/name]- with a Welsh accent I think there’s a slight emphasis on the G, like ‘guh-wen’. But it’s hard to pick out; I only really noticed it after listening to a clip on YouTube
They have a demo on their front page that allows you to change the language in which a name is spoken. They aren’t always 100% accurate but what’s cool is that you can change the speaker as well. So for UK-English there are 5 speaker options, the same for US-English, French, Spanish, Italian and [name]German[/name]. (You can also slow them down and speed them up.)
I’m from Canada and most changes in pronunciation have come from the USA. For example:
“Ah” vs. “AW” like in Brianna and Alexandra. Sara is pronounced “Sarr-a” because there are many Middle Eastern girls with that name and that pronunciation. Lara is pronounced the same, but Clara is “Clair-a”.
I pronounce Elias “El-EE-as” and Helena and Elena “Hel-AY-na.”
I hadn’t noticed the difference in the US and UK pronunciations of Harry. It’s true that North Americans do say Hairy, but I didn’t think it was drastically different from the UK pronunciation, as well as that Harry and Hairy are pronounced differently. I had to go and watch one of the Harry Potter movies to investigate
