How do you pronounce scrimgeour?

[Cinderbelly]

I am currently reading the last Harry Potter book and this is really bugging me.

I struggled with hermione until I watched the first film (in my head I was reading it as her-me-on-ee) but every time I see the new minister for Magic's name my head reads it differently!
S-crime-gor?
Scrim-ee-gour? (Our like tour and like hour)
Scrim-ger? Both with a hard and soft g!

Please help I am a professional woman in my late thirties and this is driving me nuts!

Yes, Scrim-jer.

It's quite a common surname in parts of Scotland.

Scrimjir.

It's a very common name round here.

Skrim eh jer

Scrim-jer.
There was an old actress from years ago called Hermione Baddeley and no one had problems pronouncing it correctly. Maybe it's a bit more rare these days so people don't know how to say it? However, I was a bit gobsmacked when a colleague said they'd not realised that Penelope Cruz's name was the same as the one she'd been reading in a book as 'Penny-lope'.

Stephen Fry says 'SCRIM-jer' and 'fell-ISS-iss', and he's properly posh and edjumacated, so I believe him.

As above, Stephen Fry says Scrim-jer.

Where on earth are people getting an extra syllable in the middle from?

I always said scrim-jor

What about Merope? Is the e silent or not

I read it as Mer like merry
Ope like Penelope

Merope = MEH-roh-pay (ish)

Probably local accent dahling ! @LividLaughLove
OP question was how do YOU pronounce it . I could have said I pronounce it " D*head".

I was at school with a very handsome young man with that surname.

I always pronounced is Scrim-joor, on the erroneous in this case logic that in Latin based languages g tends to be hard before a,o, u, so if you want a soft g in front of an o, you stick an e before the o. Thus explaining why it's a soft g, and why the e is pronounced separately (it's there only to modify the g sound).

English differs from a lot of languages in that it uses extra letters to modify previous syllables. So lop compared to lope - the e changes the pronunciation of the o. Our natural tendency is "Pe-ne-lope" but in Lating.greek and the S European languages every syllable is pronounced, so its' Pe-ne-lo-pe" (and, of course, Her-my-o-ne")

I'm amazed that people didn't know how to pronounce Hermione. It's not that rare a name, even before HP.

People saying scrim-i-jer or variations, where is that i coming from?
I’d say SCRIM-jaw or -jer people are saying the same thing with slightly less emphasis in the second version. It’s also how I say it.

Language evolves.
Different areas say things in different ways i.e. the word "bath" .

What about the Featherstones and Cholmondleys ?

scrim-jur thanks all!!!
I've just come across his name again and I'm definitely drawing a blank with his whole character. In my head he looks like the lion king from bed knobs and broomsticks in a wizards cloak!

I also can't pronounce Felix felicis, so just read Felix and skim over the rest.

I feel much better that I'm not the only person who struggles with hermione.

I also thought Sirius was pronounced sire-us until I saw the film.

Interesting about merope... I thought the e was silent like mu-rope

How about Firenze (fur-enz) have I got that right? I'm also sure there's a death eater called something like Rudolph that again I'm sure can't actually be Rudolph?

By 1298, Alexander had adopted the name 'Skirmeschur' and had a charter for some lands near Dundee from Sir William Wallace, Guardian of the Kingdom. Along with the lands came the title of Constable of the Castle of Dundee and this became a hereditary office of the Chief of the Scrimgeours.

Where the extra "e" or "i " comes from !

I'm amazed that people didn't know how to pronounce Hermione. It's not that rare a name, even before HP.

I’d never heard it before I started reading HP- I was pronouncing it Hermy-own in my head for quite a while!

Scrim-jor. And f'lee-sis.

Scrim-gor
But I have no clue whether it's correct

It's scrum-juh (as it is said in the Audio books by Stephen Fry)

Thanks, Charly -- I didn't know it was a Scottish surname.

I'm also surprised so many people hadn't encountered Hermione before Harry Potter. ,

I assume Firenze is pronounced the way Florence is in Italian -- Fi- REN- zay. Though have always thought it was a slightly odd name for a centaur.

And Merope is Meh-ro-pee. Like Sirius, her name is a star, one of the Pleiades.

Your welcome @BeGoodTanya
Although that name may have evolved from a French one.