I always found it mildly annoying that the official postal abbreviation for Gloucestershire is Glos. rather than, say, Gloucs.
Never mind place names, I'd like to challenge the colonials to pronounce names like Cholmondeley, Featherstonhaugh, Dalziel, Menzies, Mainwaring, Beauchamp, Wodehouse.
We had a Prime Minister in Oz for many years called Bob Menzies,
Aussies being Aussies,we all pronounced it as it was spelt.
Bob got a "bee in his bonnet" about the correct spelling being "Mingas".
He was immediately dubbed "Ming the Merciless" & we never heard another word about the"correct pronunciation".
Lots of Fanshaws in the Phone book---not many "Featherstonhaughs"!
Mainwaring is pronounced as it is spelt by everybody I have run into ,including people with that name,as is Dalziel.
We had another "Polly" named St John,who wanted his Parliamentary colleagues to call him "Sinjin",but that very quickly died out.
How
is Wodehouse pronounced in the "Old Dart?"
And why,oh why, is the abbreviation for Hampshire ,"Hants"?