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?

NRFT but I'm from the East Midlands and buck and book sound exactly the same to me...

I would have to really stretch to pronounce Brooke like the Southerners around me; it would come out more like Brack.

@MoserRothOrangeandAlmond from the north east too and have more of a Sunderland twang so the oo for us would be even more pronounced

NW I'd think it was pronounced more like bruck but I'd try to remember to say it as the person wanted. Although my name can sound very exotic when pronounced by people from foreign parts, I'd never expect them to say it like a local. Although it would be amusing if everything they said was in a European accent, except names which would be in a variety of regional accents depending on where their friend was from. Reminding myself of American cooks suddenly using 'erbes. 😃

Yes this is exactly how I know Brooke to be pronounced. That does not rhyme with bruk or truck though.

Well, what if I went to America and they pronounced my name K-air-en instead of Karen?

Should I force them to pronounce it with the 'English' way?

That seems silly.

I'm from the north, here book and buck sound exactly the same and so does luck and look. I can't imagine how they would be pronounced any different. I have family in the midlands that pronounce them the same way too.

In my accent, out of Luck, Luke and Look - luck and look sound the same, in other areas, look and luke would sound similar.

Spot on @CyberStrider - look and Luke are identical for me, luck is completely different!

I’m sat in my car saying Bruck, Brook, Broke, Bruhke, Brewk etc but I agree with what @Postre says. Regardless of your accent you pronounce it however the person or family do.

My mother used a completely different name for my DS because she’s a knob. As an example , say his name is Toby so she called him Tony because she couldn’t say his Toby.

https://voca.ro/15RiSIqfElk7

This is the closest I can get. The first is how I say it in my natural accent. The second I have to put on an ‘English’ accent to create that sound. It’s not a sound that naturally exists in my accent for ‘op’.

I'm southern and id say Brooke rhyming with hook (huk)
But it's daft if you live in the north east and expect anything other than they way you pronounce. Or live in Liverpool where it would be brooooooke

It doesn't matter how it's spelt - pronounce her name the way she wants it to be pronounced.

@HotCrossBunplease - we had an Irish/liverpudlian teacher who was always saying "Look Luke" and we'd be asking her why she always said his name twice 😂

Is different, not isn’t different

The mistake you're making is to think that your RP accent is the "correct" way of speaking and everyone else is wrong. I'm from Yorkshire and I pronounce book to rhyme with buck. I'm not doing it wrong, that's just my accent. I imagine you pronounce bath as barth, so I could say to you that there's no r in the word, but I wouldn't do that because I understand that people with different accents pronounce things in different ways, and this does not make them incorrect.

I imagine you pronounce bath as barth, so I could say to you that there's no r in the word

Don't, you'll get all the people started on rhotic R's!

I don’t understand why you can’t just say her name like her parents want it to. If I meant an American Graham or Colin I would use their way to say it because it is their name (and it was a shock that it is Graham Crackers no Gram)

Different names do have different pronunciation Elena for example is different in french and Spanish - and you pick whichever one they want.

there is no right or wrong accent there is a right and wrong way to say a name. her name is Brooke pronounced Bruck

The mistake you're making is to think that your RP accent is the "correct" way of speaking and everyone else is wrong.
OP is a Geordie.

Also take ‘car’ for example. For non-rhotic, it has no distinct r sound at the end unless followed by a word starting with a vowel. Car park is more like cah pahk. Rhotic accents pronounce the r in both - caR paRk.

If the pronunciation in the link don’t rhyme with bruk or truck in your accent, how are you pronouncing bruk or truck? Because when I heard the link it sounds exactly to me like bruk and truck.

This.

We've encountered people "correcting" our surname and DD1 first name - it's annoying especially if they do if after us explaining they are wrong.

However OP says she wasn't told - so saying it in her local accent makes more sense especially if she can't hear a clear difference to how child and child's family say it - and some people can't even when you'd think it was clear and obvious difference.

I’m Yorkshire and would say Bruck

I struggle with southern colleagues called names like Sandra, Frances or Tania because I would say those names differently to how they pronounce them.

OP you are not saying the name incorrectly!

However, as a rule I try mirror the way the person with the name pronounced it.

My niece is Danielle.
Her parents have always pronounced it Dan-yell.

I always say Dani-elle.

With an u rather than an oo.

Yes, I know, I was replying to the post that I quoted.

It’s just hard to have to learn a separate sound and spelling -takes effort and if the parents didn’t make the effort to choose a simple sounding name they should just suck up problems ( brook is simple but bruck? Like deers rucking? )