Why is st.john pronounced

[JazzAnnNonMouse]

Serginon?

Featherstonehaugh = Fanshaw I think??

pronounced

(Knows how to pronounce certain words, but clearly grammar escapes me)

Beaulieu is another one (place name, not person though).

Pron. Beelee

Yup Confused. There really are people with that first name.

Someone once told me that Featherstonehaugh was pronounced Fanshaw. I thought they were joking. Were they or not?

Featherstonehaugh = Fanshaw

And

Marjoribanks = Marchbanks

And isn't Mainwaring pronounced Mannering?

Because it would be ridiculous to call your baby Saint John?

But it is Saint John, isn't it? That's where it comes from. I wonder why that's become a name and not St Paul, or St Matthew, or St Boris, etc.

I used to know someone with the first name spelt St Maur, pronounced Seymour. These posh pronunciations are confusing, I'll never remember them

Wow! They weren't joking! My DH didn't believe me when I told him that and he's quite posh so thought he must be right.

Revels
Saint Clair has too
No idea why some and not others

Some of these are absurd! I have definitely always pronounced Belvoir as Bell Voir in my head, learn something new every day!
I'd never heard of St John as a name until Roy's Dad cropped up in Corrie - I'm clearly not even slightly posh

So, is it like singe-n (as in slightly burning)? How do I differentiate between singeing and singing? Is that how?

I think I remember somebody posting quite an amusing rhyme about the Oxbridge college pronunciations at some stage. It only rhymed if you knew them (which I didn't initially).

I didn't know that. Saint Clair is an actual name? Not just Clair?

How is it pronounced?

Oh. Is is sinclair?

Surely Beaulieu is Byew-lee

The oxford colleges are pronounced as they look?

Wait - one is Keys isn't it? Looks like something else entirely though I can't currently remember what.

*aren't!

Gonville & Gaius college

Apile - singeing as you 'singe' something with your iron

Caius

My cat is called beaver and I always regret not spelling it as belvoir! Mainly just to confuse people

As to WHY my cat is called beaver... That's another story for another day!

Beaulieu is pron. bew-lee

Pretty much anywhere in Norfolk...Wymondham, Happisburgh, Garboldisham

Menzies/Mingis

Fascinating thread! The fanshaw one has me utterly perplexed. What about Marylebone? I've heard it pronounced as it's spelt but also as Mar-lebone and Marri-lebone. Which one is correct?