To pronounce this street correctly

It also makes me think of the recent Hyundai adverts. Everyone I've ever heard say it says "Hi-un-die" but then the advert came out that we've all been saying it wrong and it should be "Hey-un-dai" (rough writing out)

Or how IKEA was always Eye-key-ah until recently when it's now Ick-Ear

Yes! See also Pepys Road in SE14. My parents-in-law grew up round there and always talked about Peppies Road. My FIL lived as a boy on a nearby street, Avignon Road, which he pronounced with the stress on the second syllable and a hard g. I don't know if the locals there do that now.

Menzies - this is from Wikipedia.

The traditional Scottish pronunciation of the name is /ˈmɪŋɪs/ ⓘ MING-iss, reflecting the spelling of the name as Menȝies, using the letter ⟨ȝ⟩ (yogh). The current spelling arose when yogh fell out of use in the Scots language and was replaced with the similar-looking tailed variant (z) of the letter ⟨z⟩.[4]
However, outside Scotland the name is often given the pronunciation /ˈmɛnziːz/ MEN-zeez, reflecting the current spelling.

A Scottish limerick plays on the traditional pronunciation:

There wis a young lassie named Menzies,
That askit her aunt whit this thenzies.
Said her aunt wi a gasp,
"Ma dear, it's a wasp,
An you're haudin the end whaur the stenzies!"[a]

Yes, I wouldn't expect everyone to have heard of High Wycombe, and round here I think people's first thought would be Wickham like the horse fair.

I live on a street that people can't pronounce. It's named after a local landmark. People also add extra letters to make it make sense to them, as in ill-inK-nwah!

I quietly correct them and, if local, mention the landmark.

My favourite one is Woolfardisworthy in Devon (fortunately not on a railway line so no confused passengers) which is pronounced 'Woolsery'.

I can't hear Loughborough without thinking of this episode.

He really does capture annoyances with modern life perfectly

Oh yes good old Spyatri !

Locally we have an area and roads with the title of Bevois Valley but the local pronunciation is bee-vis rather than be-vwar. It catches out those not from Southampton (particularly a very posh man I worked with a long time ago!). I’d go with the local pronunciation.

YY @VenusClapTrap Stiffkey is another one, of F&B Stiffkey Blue fame. Apparently it's a village in Norfolk pronounced Stew-ky.

Do option B. If you’re new to the street/area and setting up a business acting like the current inhabitants are ignorant isn’t going to do you any favours.

Why do you think the American version is “right” anyway? What is habitually used becomes “right” over time, that’s how language often works.

I get strange looks when I pronounce Ralph Lauren properly ( as in the name Lauren, not LOH-wren)

Always say it how locals do. There's a few that are pronounced differently to the spelling. You will look like an outsider and keep making yourself an outsider pronouncing it wrong. Pronounce the local way then if it's an address say it's spelled as you would pronounce the American way

Gee, Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. 😂

Pronounce it the way the locals do.

When the street was first named, you might have had a good case for using the American pronunciation of the place it was named after. But it now has an established pronunciation, and that is what the people who live there use.

Is High Wycombe not pronounced as High Wickham then?

Strathaven is a great one!

There’s an endless list of places I have pronounced wrong despite being born and bred here, including

Hawick
Burntisland
Drumsagard
Leven
Drymen

Best one I’ve heard though was Dumb-Fries (from an American I met in Leeds) and forever more Dumfries is now known as StupidChips in our house 😂

How do other local people pronounce it?

I lived for a while in the eighties in Wycombe Gardens. On about every third occasion people read back the spelling as Whickham. Even when I said 'as in High Wycombe' some still got it wrong.

I live in Northern Ireland

We have
Magherberry - Pronounced Magabry
Portglenone - Portglenown

Ahoghill - Ahogal

And a zillion more

Radio 2 travel news totally mutilate the names of our roads and towns and google maps has me in fits when Im using it for directions

Accordingly to legend, locals used to prounounce Cirencester as Sister, to go with Bister (Bicester), but that's been lost.

See also Mirus (Mirehouse) and Sebberum (Sebergham). Oh, and Spyatri (Aspatria) 😁

There’s a village in Sussex called Keymer. People (locals and visitors) pronounce it as you’d expect - Key 🔑. But I recently discovered that some older locals from old local families pronounce it Kymer, and apparently that is how it used to be pronounced. But language evolves. In another generation I suspect the old pronunciation will be lost completely.

It actually makes sense it would be Kymer, as other Sussex place names pronounce y as in eye, e.g. Ardingly.

I find the evolution of language fascinating.

I've been to St Louis. They definitely pronounce it Lewis there.

It goes both ways, too. I lived once near a neighbourhood in a North American city where all the streets were named after Oxford colleges. At least at that time, the locals lived on Buhloyal rather than Balliol.

I grew up in Daventry. :) And went to Danetre school.

We know of a David who originally comes from Daventry - everybody calls him Double-Dave

C
I would imagine most towns and cities have a street that is known locally by a different pronunciation to where the name comes from. We definitely have that in my town.