Question of the Week: What Name Pronunciations Bedevil You?
I recently heard someone telling a story about a Maine infantry officer I admire, Adelbert Ames. I’ve always known Ames’s first name to be pronounced “AY-del-burt,” but this person pronounced it “uh-DEL-burt.”
Similarly, I’ve long heard competing pronunciations of “Darius Couch.” Is it DARE-ee-us or duh-RYE-us? Is it COUCH or COOTCH?
What Civil War pronunciations have bedeviled YOU?
Confederate major general Camille Armand Jules Marie de Polignac — French prince and infantry brigade commander in the Trans-Mississippi theater … his Texans called him General Polecat … couldn’t find a phonetic spelling — the “gn” is one of those french consonant pairs that requires tongue twisting … so I am going with Polecat.
La FAY ette McLaws- or should it be Lafayette like the Marquis?
Yes, it is uh-DEL-burt, stress on the middle syllable. There’s Roger Taney: Tawn-ey, not Tain-ey. And one I have a personal interest in, George Boutwell, Radical Republican, Lincoln’s Commissioner of Revenue and Grant’s Treasury Secretary. Some people want to spell it and pronounce it, Boot-well. No, it’s pronounced as it’s spelled: Bout-well.
With all due respect, how do you know the “correct” pronunciation? He obviously didn’t tell you.
Glen, not sure if your comment is tongue-in-cheek (how do any of us know for certain how an historical figure pronounced his/her name?), but even more so in my case, since Boutwell is my family name and I know a bit of the history on how it’s been pronounced/mispronounced.
Wlodzimierz Krzyzanowski
This is the winner. Although I thought he had coached at Duke … LOL
this one’s a “twofer” — first and last names.
The surname KOCH. Any suggestions?\
abatis
William B. Taliaferro. Apparently his last name is pronounced TOL-iv-er.
William J. Hardee. Is it pronounced Hardy or Har-dee?
McLaws. Is it Lah-FAY-ette like Gary Gallagher says it or Lah-fee-ETTE.
Henry Kyd Douglas……Is it pronounced kid like a small child? or kide which rhymes with ride?
I agree with Eric Sterner, when reading I always stumble over Taliaferro. The other question I always have is Gen. James Birdseye McPherson. Is it pronounced Birds-eye or Birdsee?
For what it’s worth, I’ve always heard that it’s BIRD-zee.
I grew up on Birdseye Street and attended Birdseye School (named after a local sea captain) and we used “Bird’s-eye”
How much of it depends on where you live, or are from? Beaufort, NC. is pronounced ‘Bow-furt’, while Beaufort, SC, is pronounced ‘B-yew-furt’.
One interesting pronunciation involves the word “creek”. There are those who, then and now, pronounce(d) it as ‘crick’. Some of my PA relatives are among those.
As for actual people’s names, that of Confederate General Benjamin Huger stands out for me. I have always pronounced it as it is spelled (Hew-ger), but I have heard it presented as “Yew-gee”. Perhaps some clarification can be provided on here about that.
So regarding Huger, the “Yew-Gee” pronunciation is the South Carolina version that is an Americanized pronunciation from the original name in French. The French would say “U-jai” – as in a silent H, the U pronounced as it would in the word huger, and the “GER” pronounced as a standard “er” verb in French.
Yeah, Chris, I’m with you: Ames and Couch. There must be some descendant/relative around who could at least clear up Darius’ surname question. According to Garry Adelman, Trostles exist and they pronounce their name as TROE-sul, not TROS-sul. C’mon, there HAS to be a Couch relative out there!
I agree with Douglas’ observation that the pronunciation depends on where you are from. For example, I was born in Baltimore, Md. So, you would think you would pronounce the name of the city as Bal-T- more. But if you are from that city, you don’t pronounce the “T” in Baltimore. Those of us from Baltimore pronounce it without the “T”. So you say it as Bal “ le” more.
I am a graduate of Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va. A neighboring city is Buena Vista; if you pronounce it with any hint of Hispanic inflection, you’ll be run out of town — since the locals pronounce it “BYOO-nuh Vis-tuh,” not “Bway-nuh Vee-stuh.” (While an undergrad, the workaround/solution was to refer to the town as “Bee-Vee.”) And the Lord protect you if you mispronounce Staunton — the locals say “STAN-ton,” not “Stahn-ton.” My advice is to follow local practice. And pronunciation.
That’s how Buena Vista in CO is pronounced, as well. The river going through town was always pronounced as the ArKANSAS but the newcomers have changed it to the ARKansaw.
One interesting one is Catharpin near Fredericksburg, but near Manassas it is pronounced cat-HAIR-pin. Also, Boatswain’s Swamp as “Bo-sens”
It’s an interesting question because there were very few difficult to pronounce, but it does show how America was changing. I can remember the first time I read ‘Lee’s Lieutenants,’ and looking at Freeman’s lists of Lee’s officers, I noted that they were all the grand old English names – but one: Taliaferro. Being Italian I thought, “How did an Italian sneak in there?” Turns out an Italian had sneaked into England, it was an old English family that had come to the New World, and in Southern Speak the name was pronounced “Toliver.” As for the North, the huge influx of Irish immigrants had already begun. In 1853, three of them murdered my 4X great-grandfather because he was a Lutheran. By 1861, entire regiments have lists of 1,000 Irish names in the Federal army.