AIBU for pronouncing the name Brooke as BrOOKe rather than Bruck

[MoserRothOrangeandAlmond]

I’m a Geordie and pronounce words such as Book, Look and Cook with an oo sound rather than the uck sound.
A family who are from about an hour a way said that her daughter is sick of everyone pronouncing her name incorrectly.

I explained that it’s an accent thing as we pronounce those words with an oo sound rather that uck so it wouldn’t occur to most people to pronounce it that way and they wouldn’t deliberately mispronounce her name!

Just as if I go another part of the country or different country they pronounce my name differently depending on their accent.

AIBU?

So there’s no difference in sound when you say book and buck? I’ve never heard that before. Book sounds difference to buck, and book also doesn’t rhyme with food. There’s 3 different sounds. I’m in the south, lots of London accents around and never heard anyone pronounce book and buck the same.

I think you've not been at all unreasonable in pronouncing it the way you would normally say the name without knowing it was an issue for anyone. But people are allowed to say how they like their name to be pronounced too. There's no categoric right or wrong here.

It’s not quite ‘buck’, it’s a softer kind of ‘uh’ sound. If you say moon aloud and then book, if you’re got a southern English accent, the middle of those words will generally sound quite different. A strong oo sound v a softer kind of ouh sound.

For northern English accents and Scottish, oo is the same sound for both when you break it down.

This is an accent issue, not pronounciation.

They should have spelled it “Bruck” then. I’m a southerner through and through, and I’d pronounce Booke to rhyme with book!

That’s just wrong, there’s no way Brooke rhymes with truck. It also doesn’t sound like food or mood though, that’s a different sound too. Brooke rhymes with look and book, food rhymes with mood and rude, luck rhymes with truck and muck. 3 completely different sounds.

I don't think they're pronouncing it's Bruck in the way people are thinking on here ie rhyming with luck, I think that might be just how the OP is trying to explain the sound.

I think the way the OP says it (due to accent) it rhymes with fluke, when it should rhyme with look. But to the OP fluke and look rhyme.

I can hear how Brooke can almost sound like Bruck if you say the oo sound very softly.

To anyone who pronounces bOOk and lOOk, I always ask what are trees made of? wOOd or wud?

I can understand you calling her Brooke (I know a scouser with a Brooke, but I’d probably call her Bruck), but now you’ve been corrected YWBU if you continued to do so. It doesn’t matter if it’s a word name, just like if a girl was called Ahr-na and you pronounced it Ann-a. Once you’re corrected you should probably say it like they ask.

Look again at that Wikipedia page and the phonetic transcription for the Scottish and Northern Irish accent. That is closer to what OP will be saying. While you may be right that “bruck” is a bit of an exaggerated way to write what OP is hearing the girl and her family say, it is indisputable that “oo” is a shorter and more open-mouthed sound when said by an RP speaker compared to a Geordie or a Scot.

incidentally, my all-time favourite rendering of the “oo” sound is the Lancashire one where they say “ew” like my colleague from Blackburn who said I should “tekk a lewk in the bewk” to check something.

OP’s family and young Brewk would be having conniptions if they lived there!

Another example, for me I pronounce pour and poor very differently. For non-rhotic accents though they can sound almost identical.

I'm in Ireland and 'book' and 'buck' sound very similar.

To me the name Brooke does sound similar to truck, but slightly softer. I've certainly never heard of it pronounced with an 'ooh' sound in the middle (either in real like or in film, TV, radio, etc).

Yeah, you're meant to pronounce people's names the way they do. It's rude to make up your own rules according to your own geographical region.

Wood is never pronounced wud, its wood with a soft oo as in book, not moon.

Brooke rhymes with book in the NE as well they just pronounce it differently! The oo is a lot longer, more like boo-k, like boo to you. In the south it’s more like buk.

In Reception and year 1 phonics, children are taught that there are two ‘oo’ sounds.

One is short, as in ‘look’ and ‘book’. One is long, as in ‘too’ and ‘soon’.

I suspect the parents are pronouncing Brooke with the short ‘oo’, not with an ‘u’ sound.

@May913Bruck rhyming with luck is how it is pronounced by the family.

MN and its typical southern England-centric ‘This is how things are spoken’ rhetoric.

A lot of you are wrong. Look up rhotic and non-rhotic accents, I beg you.

Yes, pp are getting mixed up because they're hearing "Bruck" in an RP accent, instead of a Northern one. There's a double misunderstanding, because the way OP pronounces e.g. "cook, book" will be like there's an additional o (coook boook).

No, they are the same, I can't even think how they would be different - food would be totally different. Am in the North but not the same area as the OP

I’m from an ‘ooo’ area but was raised by a parent who wanted us to speak the ‘Queen’s English’ so I’ve always pronounced book etc with an ‘uh’ sound rather than an ‘ooo’ sound. I would therefore pronounce it as ‘Bruhke’, same as look, cook, book etc.
Sooty was always a challenge growing up, kids I went to school with didn’t know what as I was talking about when I said it was my fave TV show because they all watched Soooooty!
If someone has asked you specifically to pronounce their name in a certain way, even if it doesn’t come naturally you should always try - it’s polite and doesn’t cost you anything. My child’s name is a ‘th’ sound and I will correct people who pronounce it with an ‘f’ sound instead!

is it a short O long O thing? Does the child want her name pronounced as a short O and you are saying long O as in the "UI" sound in fruit. I think that names are an exception to the "its my accent" rule. Unless you physically can't make the sound that the person asks for, then they have a right to have their name pronounced how they want it.

Like read a buck, rhymes with fuck?
I guess there's a few ways to pronounce it! X

And ask Scottish people about their experience of rhyming books written by someone with a non-rhotic accent! One of DD’s books I have to read in a pretend English accent.

Bruck?! They’ve just made that up 😂

I've never heard anyone from up here (NE) say bruck...it's so hard to say in our accent. I'd just stick to pet 🤣

This.
I had to introduce a lecture by a man whose surname was Leung. I'd heard it mangled and believe me Youtube is not reliable. I excused my self and asked how his name was pronounced so I'd get it right. He told me.

More to the point he said thank you for asking.