How to pronounce ancestors names.

[pharmaT]

I came to a realisation this morning that some of the surnames in my tree I have only ever seen written down and not heard said out loud.  I have no idea how they pronounced their names and for some of them I can think of a few possibilities.  Anyone else got this?

[Mart 'n' Al]

I am researching the surname Loughborough, and I have 30 to 40 different spellings because of the fact that people both struggle to pronounce it when they see it and can't write it down when they hear it. Note that the gh combination is pronounced differently at each place in the name.

Martin

[Viktoria]

As far as I can, this is the phonetic spelling:-
 Luffburrah or Luffbruh.
Friend’s son at the Uni there ,Sports, so they say it as many locals do.
Manchester,ooo it annoys me when people say Manchister.

When you think of Leicester ,Lestor.
Gloucester, Gloster.
Ours is an irrational language.
Bear in mind the changes in pronunciation too.
Can not remember which play now,may have been the one Mrs Malaprop was in and our English teacher informed us that in the time of  the play
leisure which we sound as lesure would be leesure.
Viktoria.

[pharmaT]

I actually started thinking about it because my younger daughter, who is learning to read pointed to the tree and said "what does that say".  It was at that point I realised what I had been saying in my head wasn't necessarily how the family pronounced it.  It's up a female line and I have never met anyone with the name.

The ones I've been thinking of are:

Smythies.  I've been saying it with the my to rhyme with my but I don't know.


Bankier.  I've been saying Ban-keer but maybe they said banky-er.


I guess I'll never know for sure.

[JenB]

Place-names are difficult too.

How would you pronounce Ulgham?

[Nanna52]

Off the top of my head nothing exciting.  James, McKay, Vincent, Wasley, Williams, Young, Castle (that causes pronunciation fun), Ellis, Hughes, Tippett, Semmens, Heale (or Hale), Cantle, Knight, Harris.  They are back to before 1800.  Oddly I have to spell my married name though and it is an old name related to a job.

[Mike in Cumbria]

Place-names are difficult too.

How would you pronounce Ulgham?

or Slaithwaite or Torpenhow?  (Neither as you might think!)

[rosie99]

Place-names are difficult too.

How would you pronounce Ulgham?

I got it wrong, I was ignoring the wrong letter 

[pharmaT]

Place names are a bit easier as you can find out from current locals. However family names are more difficult if you are not in contact with anyone from that same line as I've learnt that different families with the same name pronounce it differently.


I find, place name wise people struggle to pronounce: Dalry, Milngavie, Mauchline. I have even had people lecture me how to say it when they have never even been there.