To pronounce this street correctly

[wherethestreetshaveasillyname]

I just moved into small business premises locally and people have been asking for the address.

Now the street shares the name with a North American location that’s semi well-known in the UK - to avoid outing myself, let’s call it Illinois Street (it’s similar).

But every time I pronounce it (ill-ih-NOY street), I get blank looks. Then, when I describe the location, I get “ah you mean ill-ih-nwahh street!” and a raised ‘are you a bit stupid’ eyebrow.

What should I do?

A)keep saying it correctly

B) say it like everyone else seems to- but then look weird when I encounter someone who says it correctly

C) do as I am currently and long-windedly doing and say “oh it’s on Illinois Street, or, ill-i-nwa street as people seem to pronounce it round here.

(this is life-and-death and not at all lighthearted btw)

Not heard of that one so not sure if it’s local to Southampton 🤣

I live near a ‘Cowper Road’ - it’s in an area where all the streets are named after English poets (Tennyson, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Milton etc) so should technically be pronounced ‘Cooper’, as that’s how the poet William Cowper pronounced his name.

But William Cowper isn’t particularly well-known anymore, and hardly anyone knows that’s how it’s supposed to be pronounced, so everyone pronounces it ‘Cow-puh Road.’ You’d get a lot of blank looks if you asked for directions to ‘Cooper Road.’

The local pronunciation over time becomes the correct pronunciation.

We absolutely need to know what name it is to be able to judge. Honestly, OP, no one will track you down if you just tell us…

My late DM was born in De Beauvoir town, the family always pronounced it De Bow-veor. Not Beever and certainly not in the French way.
I still find it difficult to say it any other way, and particularly not Beevuh which is a fairly recent appropriation of the way the name is pronounced by poshos, especially people whose own surname is Beauvoir.
I think it separates us regular old Londoners from the arrivistes. (I too am a Cockernee.)

I used to live in Nottingham - near the household-name Rawley bike manufacturers (as in Sir Walter)!

There's a road on a bus route I sometimes use called Maclean Road. The recorded announcement always says Macleen Road, which drives me to distraction (I'm Scottish). Maclean is pronounced Maclane.

I was brought up on a road that EVERYONE pronounces incorrectly. Even when it’s mentioned on TV or radio, which is fairly frequent locally, they say it with an ‘ee’ sound at the end instead of an ‘ah’. I refuse, point blank, to pronounce it wrongly. So I end up sounding really fussy and stuck up. But I don’t care😆 I’m in Belfast, for context, and being ‘up yerself’ is a BIG FAT no-no.

So, from a very stubborn Norn Iron wumman, I say pronounce it properly and ignore the eejits.

Heysham, lot of people say hay-sham but the local pronunciation is hee-shum

If the locals pronounce it "ill-ih-nwah" street then that is how it's pronounced.

Doesn't matter how it's pronounced in the US - you're in the UK.

Many towns and cities in the UK have street and road names that seem to be designed to be modern day Shibboleths to allow the locals to identify "out of towners" more easily

Shibboleth - Wikipedia

In Wales, we get that problem all the time! We just say it correctly and don't expect non-Welsh people to get their tongues around it. They usually have a good laugh when they realise how they mispronounced it. Full marks given to any visitors who manage to get it right!

The correct pronunciation is the local variation.

Houston, Texas is pronounced Who-ston
Houston St, NYC is pronounced How-ston

The locals are correct.

Haha yes it does. Even my Welsh friends argue over pronunciation depending on where in Wales they grew up. LLANDUDNO prompted a lively debate once as for Betws y Coed 🤣🤣

I just moved into small business premises locally and people have been asking for the address.

When in Rome...

Also, you are running a business. Don't make things more difficult for yourself by confusing people about the location or coming off a bit Hyacinth Bucket.

Then there's Belvoir castle of course

DH is from Wishaw, pronounced Wishee.

I’m living in the US and they have loads of British place names and they butcher them all! 🤣

De Beauvoir Town is named after the landowner who owned the land it was built on, and my understanding is they used the Beevuh pronunciation,

That's the local slang. People don't typically pronounce it as Wishee in 'polite'/formal company.

That was just in the film. It's definitely pronounced 'Lewis' in the USA. I've been there a few times on road trips.

I think for place names the correct way to pronounce it is the way the locals pronounce it.
It might be named after the American State. A lot of place names in the USA are named after British places but pronounced very differently and in a way we would say is wrong

There's a Magdalen Rd in SW London which is Mag Da Len and there's a twit of an influencer with a film saying "You'll never guess that this is pronounced Mawdlen". Not round here it isn't.

I live on the west coast of Scotland. The island of Islay is pronounced 'Eyela', it throws tourists who think it's 'Isla'. But if they've never heard it said out loud until they got there, I guess it's a reasonable mistake.

A bit like in The New Forest. I lived in Beaulieu, worked in Dibden Perlieu.

Beaulieu is pronounced bew (rhyme with yew) Lee and Perlieu is per- loo.

Tourists never got it correct.

I'm originally Australian - you'd never pronounce Melbourne as you'd say it here, it's Melb'n and my family come from Albany (not all-bany but All-bany).

And have you heard Americans try and pronounce British names? Say it like the locals

No Z. It's a C. Boysee

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boise%2C_Idaho