STRANGE BRITISH

SURNAMES

You can hear the pronunciation of

these words in my video on YOUTUBE

This article in Spanish: Apellidos Extraños

These surnames perhaps represent the 'outer limits' of

English pronunciation.

The tourist in Britain can expect to be confused and surprised by the pronunciation of British place names, which sometimes sound very different from the way they are written.

Even tourists from the United States, who speak the language perfectly well, can be confused by town names like Bicester and Gloucester.

Anyone vacationing in Scotland will meet many strange place names, such as Rothesay – a traditional holiday town on the Isle of Bute – and Milngavie, a town on the outskirts of Glasgow. How would you pronounce these?

The tourist in Ireland has a hard job too, especially as many place names are based on the traditional language, Gaelic. One example will be enough for you: Dun Laoghaire, a beautiful seaside town just south of Dublin.

Dun Laoghaire is very popular with holiday visitors but even the English and Welsh people don’t know how to pronounce it!

However, the names of British places are not the subject of this note. In this article I want to show you some strange British surnames that very few people know how to pronounce.

Before introducing you to these incredible surnames – and to prepare you for them – here are the phonetics for the five places mentioned above.

I haven’t mentioned any place name from Wales. However, there is a little village on the Isle of Anglesey, a peaceful farming and tourist area. This little Welsh village has a little train station with the longest name, and the longest platform ticket, in Europe, or perhaps in the world. It’s in the Welsh language and it’s a single word:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Yes, I can pronounce it and I can tell you how you can learn to pronounce it: just live in North Wales for six months, as I did, and the local people will teach you.  You will not be surprised to learn that it’s called Llanfair PG for short.

THE SURNAMES

These are all genuine surnames. The list is not in alphabetical order as I begin with six that I usually remember and add a few more that are not so obvious.

Color Code:

Blue = Written English

Red = Phonetic

All ‘ch’s are ch of Chelsea, all a’s are a of Arsenal,

all ee’s are ee of Leeds.

Mainwaring

Manering (i of Liverpool)

Marjoribanks

Meybanks

Cholmondely

Chamley

Beauchamp

Beecham

Featherstonehaugh

Fansho (o of Tottenham)

St. John

Sinchin (both i of Liverpool)

Bagehot

Bachit (i of Liverpool)

Beauclerk

Book-leer (oo of Liverpool)

Buccleugh

Ba-kloo (oo of Liverpool)

Colquohoun

Ka-hoon (oo of Liverpool)

Fotheringay

Fang-chee

Of course these surnames are curiosities, even to English-speaking

people, but they are important to the people who have these names.

Such surnames belong to the upper classes or upper-middle classes, or to people who take these names in the hope of appearing to be upper class.

Normally these strange surnames are an irrelevance but if you work ‘front of house’ in a big hotel, restaurant, casino or any expensive store catering to tourists in an English-speaking vacation area you will meet names like these.

Have you seen the articles on Learning English Abroad?

You can hear the pronunciation of

these words in my video on YOUTUBE

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