Pronounce English Accurately

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Crazy personal names

There are a some British surnames, usually rather upper-class ones, whose spelling and pronunciation don't match very well. These give us another opportunity to practice reading from the IPA without help from the spelling.

Let's do the same thing again - I'll put up the IPA and pause you then read it out aloud, and then I'll say the word and put up the spelling.

Let's start with ones in which the spelling is not too peculiar and work towards the stranger ones.

Say this: /vɔːn/.

That's Vaughan - /vɔːn/ - a reasonably common name, the name of the composer Vaughan Williams.

His first name, by the way, was /reɪf/: Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Some very posh Ralphs pronounce their name /reɪf/ - most pronounce it /rælf/.

How about /ˈmɔːm/? That's Maugham as in Somerset Maugham, the author - /ˈmɔːm/

Sticking with high culture, how about this: /dʌn/.

That's the metaphysical poet John Donne - /dʌn/.

and /piːps/ - that's Samuel Pepys - /piːps/.

/ˈsɪn.dʒən/

This is the pronunciation of St John as a first name or a surname, as in the late politician Norman St John Stevas - this one isn't too uncommon. If you see St John as a person's name you can probably assume it's pronounced /ˈsɪn.dʒən/.

If it's not a personal name, then it's pronounced normally as St John - also St John's Ambulance.

In the world of academia we have /kiːz/

This is spelt Caius, as in Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge - it's pronounced /kiːz/.

Here's a well-known name of an alcoholic drink - you'll see it in the booze aisle of supermarkets: /ˈkəʊ.bən/

That's Cockburn, as in Cockburn's Port - /ˈkəʊ.bən/.

Now a few really crazy ones:

/ˈtʃʌm.li/ Spelt Cholmondeley - that's quite well-known.

/ˈmɪŋ.ɪs/ spelt Menzies, a fairly common Scottish name.

And a really utterly mad one, but also well known is /ˈfæn.ʃɔː/ spelt Featherstonehaugh, pronounced /ˈfæn.ʃɔː/.

If you encounter names like this, just apologise profusely for your ignorance and ask the person whose name it is how they pronounce their name and copy whatever they say!