<p>Bunsen- I like the name Claudia.</p>
<p>When I was pregnant with D, my Dad suggested that I name her after his mother. I loved my Grandma but didn’t want to name D “Pauline”. I asked my Dad why he & Mom never gave that name to me or my sister. My parents couldn’t remember, in fact they just seemed to name us whatever names they liked at the time. They didn’t use any family names and our middle names are really random. I don’t think that generation spent as much time on baby names.</p>
<p>I obviously do not have good ears. To me, Barry and Berry are pronounced alike and Harry and Larry rhyme with both of them. I know some people say there is a difference between Erin and Aaron, Sarah and Sara but I can’t hear one. I can’t even think how to pronounce them differently. Consolation, are you saying there is a difference between Carrie, Kerry and Carey??? Maybe my whole problem stems from the fact that my mother’s name was Marion- that’s right with an o not an a! Maybe that is why she never used her first name…</p>
<p>Don’t forget “Susan” for girls born in the fifties. And “Dorothy” for those born at the end of the 1930s (wonder why!)</p>
<p>For me, Mary rhymes with Larry, merry rhymes with ferry, marry is similar to Mary but with a shorter a. </p>
<p>So “Mairy was mehrry when she got married.” is about right. </p>
<p>Larry and Harry rhyme with each other. Hairy rhymes with fairy. </p>
<p>Don for me rhymes with “on,” while the vowel in Dawn sounds like “awe.”</p>
<p>Same here.</p>
<p>I agree with Consolation. Kerry and Carrie definitely do not sound alike to me. I hear the “bet” E in Kerry, and the “Bat” A in Carrie.</p>
<p>Same with Aaron and Erin.</p>
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<p>Yup. And Carey and Mary rhyme with “fairy.”</p>
<p>Larry, Harry, Carrie and marry all have the a as in bat.</p>
<p>Kerry and merry and ferry all have a short e as in bet.</p>
<p>It is a regional thing. In some regions, natives typically do not distinguish vowel sounds.</p>
<p>PS I like Claudia too. :)</p>
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<p>I grew up with my Kentucky-native mother pronouncing “pen” and “pin” the same way. Sometimes I still have to remember that I write with a “pen” and not a “pin.”</p>
<p>But in the Dawn/Don thing, your own family may pronounce them quite differently, but when the phone rings, how do you know which one the caller wants when you don’t know how they pronounce them?</p>
<p>As for Claudia, I think anyone who has seen *In the Heights *has affection for that name, but even there it’s an older lady (abuella) name.</p>
<p>I remember, quite clearly, my 7th grade speech teacher demonstrating the difference in the vowel sounds between Mary, merry, and marry.</p>
<p>I couldn’t hear any difference at all. But other kids were nodding, so I nodded too.</p>
<p>I went to The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in HS for a Saturday acting program. One of our teachers was the “speech” person: her goal was to eradicate bad speech habits such as excessively sibilant Ss, undifferentiated vowels, and so forth. She listened to everyone read, and made suggestions. She listened to me, nodded thoughtfully, and said “You’re fine.” I was the only one.</p>
<p>I’m just sayin’ :D</p>
<p>Consolation, where were you raised and where were your parents raised? H and I have an ongoing disagreement about what part of the country has a “lack of an accent” (pronounces everything “correctly”). He has the nerve to say Chicago to which I say no way.</p>
<p>I agree with you, missypie. Chicago is all too often the land of the monovowel! 
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<p>I was raised in Fairfield County, CT. My mother is from the same place, and my father is from the Pacific Northwest. I should also reveal that I spent two years at boarding school in England (8th and 9th grade), and while there picked up an English accent. I was indistinguishable from my schoolmates. Although I had reverted back to my native accent by the time I went to AADA, there was probably some lingering influence. (Actually, when we lived in England, some people found it hard to believe that we were really Americans. They often asked if we were Canadian. I don’t think they knew what Canadians sound like–and of course there are plenty of regional accents there, too–they just knew that we didn’t sound like what they expected from Americans.)</p>
<p>The NYT once referred to my home town as having a “potatoes in the mouth” accent, which I’ve always found rather amusing.</p>
<p>Growing up in Minnesota, we were always told that we had the best pronunciation and lack of accent. Many of the national broadcaster were from Minnesota so I always believed it. Only when I left there, was I able to begin to hear that many Minnesotans do in fact, have an accent.</p>
<p>MinnesOtans having no accent???</p>
<p>Yes, let’s please don’t get into regional pronunciations.
Some in Boston try to pahk their cahr
Some in New York believe an original thought is an idear
Some in the South think 1 more than 4 is fav.
But regional pronunciations and accidental misspellings are often the reason some people get “cutesy” spellings of names.</p>
<p>And Marian is typically the female spelling of the word, because the word is derived from the Virgin Mary, the most famous surrogate mother of all time.</p>
<p>When I lived in England I was asked if I were from the southern US, when I lived in Georgia I was asked if I were from Boston and when I lived in Boston I was asked if I were from England.</p>
<p>When I hear myself I sound just like the native New Yorker I am. My mother took a course in college called Eastern Seaboard Speech which seemed to have influenced her when I was young but she sounds just like a New Yorker now.</p>
<p>Merry, Mary and marry each sound very different to me.</p>
<p>One of my DDs has a name I thought would not get a nickname. When I was pregnant and working on names, a friend and I speculated and came up with one possible stretch based on the first few letters of her name, but barely used it, and only with close family.</p>
<p>In school a friend started up a new and despised nickname so we went on a campaign and put the originally conceptualised nickname into full time use. To this day DD goes by that nickname and people wonder why and do not see the connected, but we were not going to allow her to be branded with the one we did not like just because one family liked it (and they still call her that to this day!)</p>
<p>"MinnesOtans having no accent??? "</p>
<p>Well, there may be no accent–but there is that distinctive inflection! Definitely a rhythm to midwest speech…</p>
<p>I’ve been told Californians speak “newscaster” uni-speak–but am amused that folks occasionally ask if I’m from the midwest (I’m a native Californian but parents migrated from the midwest so it sinks in deep)</p>
<p>And I too am one of those who faked my way through phonics and to this day cannot hear small pronunciation differences or put in the accents correctly without help…</p>
<p>I speak to folks from all over the country on the phone, and I can’t recall discerning a “California accent.”</p>
<p>Some Californians have an interesting way of pronouncing Ls. It’s subtle, though.</p>
<p>This is one of those threads where most people are so anxious to list their own additions, that they probably skip over most of the posts… so here are mine
My mothers, grandmothers and great-aunts – all from either the Midwest or New England:</p>
<p>*Wynona (several, including my mom, who was hurt/angry that none of us continued the tradition with our own daughters)
*Thelma
*Lila (pretty)
*Alta
*Ruth
*Lois
*Avis
*Hattie
*Belle
*Sallie (also my D1’s name, though with a “y”)
*Norma</p>
<p>And my parents came THIS close to naming me Martha Allen, until a kind neighbor talked them out of it. They still gave me a boy’s middle name, though (Scott) and always called me by my first and second names together. Must remember to ask my mother why…</p>