Tuesday, February 24, 2009

What's in a Name?

Andrew and I have rented a new apartment. Starting April 1st, we will officially be Brooklynites. We're thrilled to have found a place away from the constant construction surrounding our current apartment, and we're eager to test out a new neighborhood. The only problem we have sharing this news to the world is that we can't pronounce our new address:

We will live on Schermerhorn St.

Drawing on our knowledge of German, Andrew and I both started pronouncing it ['sher mer horn], but since it's actually a Dutch name, and is one of the older Streets in Brooklyn, it is also pronounced ['skEr mer horn] and ['skIm mer horn]. (Anyone who took diction classes with me will know that it's killing me not to use IPA). We have no idea which way is "right," and even our broker pronounced it two different ways when we were signing the lease.

I knew I would need to find some difficult word to spell in my basic information ever since I dropped my maiden name, but I've never been in a position where I can't pronounce the word to begin with. Still, there's time to settle this before we're packing up and heading across the Brooklyn Bridge. Maybe I should put it to a vote.
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. Ryan HauckFebruary 25, 2009 at 8:03 AM

    When in doubt, Google it!

    http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/families/schermerhorn/chronicles/1a.html#p1 , "Interpretation of the Name of Schermerhorn" section: "The proper pronunciation of the name is Scare-Mer-Horn." [Then goes on to talk about popular alternate pronunciations]

    Also here: http://abrooklynlife.com/2005/09/the-luquer-stre.html , see the comments on 9.30.2005 by Park Sloper. He implies that the traditional neighbhorhood pronunciation is SKIMMER-horn.

    [why yes, I do love getting lost looking up obscure trivia on the internet, why do you ask? :)]

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chrissy FlemingFebruary 25, 2009 at 6:26 PM

    Thanks Ryan,!

    Of course, even YOU gave me two answers, which puts me right back where I started, doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ryan HauckFebruary 27, 2009 at 7:09 AM

    *lol* sorry about that. My reply would be that Scare-mer-horn and Skimmer-horn are essentially the same, depending on how fast you're saying it. :)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)