List of places in the United States with counterintuitive pronunciations: A–L

This list is a sublist of List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations.

Place names in the United States of America

A

• Aberdeen, Washington – stressed on the first syllable , unlike Aberdeen, Scotland, which is stressed on the final syllable
• Abiquiu, New Mexico –
• Acequia, Idaho –
• Achilles, Kansas –
• Albany, Georgia - stressed on the second syllable as "All-'ben-ny" or "Al-'bain-ny"
• Albuquerque, New Mexico –
• Alma, Wisconsin -
• Aloha, Oregon –
• Arab, Alabama and Arab, Missouri –
• Arkansas –
• Arkansas City, Kansas is pronounced , as is the Arkansas River to many Kansans.
• Armada, Michigan -
• Athens, Kentucky, Athens, Illinois and New Athens, Illinois –
• Au Sable, New York, and the river of that name - or

B

• Bahama, North Carolina –
• Bangor, Maine – (not "banger")
• Barre, Vermont –
• Beatrice, Alabama and Beatrice, Nebraska – ; usually Beatrice is
• Beatty, Nevada –
• Beaufort, South Carolina – (cf intuitive or of Beaufort, North Carolina)
• Belen, New Mexico –
• Bellefontaine, Ohio –
• Belle Fourche, South Dakota –
• Benld, Illinois –
• Bergen, New York –
• Berlin, Connecticut; IL; MA; NA; NY (New); Berlin, Holmes County, Ohio; WI; and WI (New) – (stress on first syllable)

• Bexar, Texas – or

• Bingen, Washington –
• Biscay, Minnesota – {{#tag:ref|c.f. Atlantic Ocean's Bay of Biscay |group= n}}
• Boerne, Texas –
• Bois D'Arc, Missouri –
• Boise, Idaho – state-wide otherwise often-intuitive )
• Boise City, Oklahoma – locally {{#tag:ref|The "s" sound generally merges with the same sound in "City."|group= n}}
• Bolivar Township, Benton County, Indiana, MO, MS, NY, OH, PA, OR, TN, WV – all named for Simón Bolívar but pronounced {{#tag:ref|In contradistinction to the surname, by convention, these rhyme with "Oliver"|group= n}}
• Bossier City, Louisiana –
• Bowie, Maryland –
• Buena Vista, Colorado, OR, VA, TX, IA –
• Buddha, Indiana –
• Buhl, Idaho –
• Burien, Washington –

C

• Cairo, Georgia and MS –
• Cairo, Illinois, OH, and NY –
• Calais, Maine and VT – {{#tag:ref|The town of Calais in France was for centuries also pronounced in English; today , with initial stress in British English and final stress in American English are the normal pronunciations.|group= n}}
• Camano Island, Washington –
• Canaan Valley, West Virginia – locally
• Casa Grande, Arizona – or
• Camp Hill, Pennsylvania –
• Canyon de Chelly, Arizona –
• Castile, New York
• Celina, Texas –
• Chartres Street, New Orleans –
• Chatham, Massachusetts, NJ and NY –
• Chehalis, Washington –
• Chelan, Chelan County, and Lake Chelan, Washington –
• Cheyenne, Wyoming - (
• Cherryville, North Carolina –
• Chewelah, Washington –
• Chicago –
• Chickasha, Oklahoma –
• Chili, New York –
• Clatskanie, Oregon –
• Coeur d'Alene, Idaho –
• Columbus, Ohio –
• Conneaut, Ohio and Conneautville, Pennsylvania –
• Conetoe, North Carolina –
• Connecticut –
• Copalis Beach, Washington –
• Coquille, Oregon –
• Cordele, Georgia –
• Corfu, New York –
• Cudahy, California – or

D

• Delhi, California, IA, LA, and NY – all
• Des Moines, Washington –
• Des Plaines, Illinois
• Deschutes River, Oregon, and Deschutes River, Washington –
• Mount Desert Island, Maine – {{#tag:ref|Homophone to the dining course, dessert|group= n}}.
• Duarte, California –
• DuBois, Pennsylvania and Dubois County, Indiana – or {{#tag:ref|Cf the surnames Du Bois and De Bois, which is often -|group= n}}
• Duenweg, Missouri –
• Dungeness River and Dungeness Spit, Washington – {{#tag:ref|c.f. English low-lying point (without a middle syllable).|group= n}}.

E

• El Dorado, Arkansas, El Dorado, Kansas, El Dorado Springs, Missouri, Eldorado, Illinois and Eldorado, Oklahoma –
• Elbe, Washington –
• Elgin, Illinois – {{#tag:ref|c.f. Scottish original place or Elgin, Texas |group= n}}.
• Elizabethton, Tennessee –
• Embarras River, Illinois –
• Ephrata, Washington – {{#tag:ref|c.f. intuitive Borough of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, which is pronounced |group= n}}
• Estacada, Oregon –

F

• Faneuil Hall, Boston, Massachusetts – or
• Fremont, California -
• Fries, Virginia –

G

• Galice, Oregon –
• Galveston, Indiana – {{#tag:ref|c.f. intuitive for larger Galveston, Texas|group= n}}
• Gloucester, Massachusetts — {{#tag:ref|As per traditional English town, county and nursery rhyme|group= n}}
• Gogebic County, Michigan -
• Greenwich, Connecticut, Greenwich, New Jersey, Greenwich, New York and Greenwich Village in New York City – {{#tag:ref|Beginning defies traditional English rules (c.f. green)|group= n}}
• Gruene, Texas –

H

• Haverhill, Massachusetts – or
• Havre, Montana – , equally:
• Havre de Grace, Maryland –
• Hereford, Texas and PA –
• Hindman, Kentucky – locally {{#tag:ref|Intuitively is sometimes used outside Eastern Kentucky|group= n}}
• Hockessin, Delaware –
• Holcomb, Missouri –
• Houston
  • Houston, DE, GA, OH and Houston Street (Manhattan) –
  • Houston, Texas – or {{#tag:ref|Named via Sam Houston after Houston, Scotland, a concatenation of ''"Hu's town"'|group= n}}
• Hualapai, Arizona –
• Huger, South Carolina – or
• Hurricane, Utah, WV and MS – {{#tag:ref|The last syllable is standard in the British pronunciation of hurricane, but not in American English, whereas the first syllable is counterintuitive and muted to compared to hurricane in either.|group= n}} {{#tag:ref|Anecdotally, locals of Hurricane say that the proper pronunciation rhymes with that of the neighboring town La Verkin.|group= n}}

I

• Illinois –
• Ilwaco, Washington – {{#tag:ref|c.f. various Waco towns|group= n}}
• Inez, Kentucky - {{#tag:ref|locally|group= n}}
• Iowa, Louisiana -
• Ironton, Ohio –
• Ischua, New York –
• Isla Vista, California –
• Iselin, New Jersey –
• Isle au Haut, Maine –
• Islip, New York –
• Italy, Texas – {{#tag:ref|with two syllables only|group= n}}

J

• Juab County, Utah –
• Strait of Juan de Fuca, (divides part of Canada from USA)–
• Julian, Pennsylvania –

K

• Kalaloch, Washington –
• Kamela, Oregon –
• Kamiah, Idaho –
• Kearney, Missouri, NE and NY –
• Keechelus Lake, WA –
• Kissimmee, Florida –
• Kosciusko, Mississippi –
• Kosciusko County, Indiana –
• Kountze, Texas –
• Kure Beach, North Carolina –

L

• Lac Courte Oreilles, Wisconsin –
• La Fayette, Alabama, GA, MS, TN – {{#tag:ref|c.f. Indiana and Louisiana: , approximating their original French|group= n}}
• La Grande, Oregon –
• La Jolla, California –
• Lake Oswego, Oregon –
• Lamesa, Texas –
• La Plata, Maryland –
• Lapwai, Idaho –
• Latah, Washington and Latah County, Idaho –
• Leakey, Texas –
• Lebam, Washington –
• Lebanon, New Hampshire – or even
• Leicester, Massachusetts – {{#tag:ref|As per English town and county|group= n}}
• Lemhi County, Idaho –
• Lemoore, California – officially after the founder, quickly becoming due to its spelling and the number of new people moving into the town
• Leominster, Massachusetts –
• Lewes, Delaware – or a more difficult
• Lima, Ohio –
• Lodi, California, and elsewhere in US –
• Lompoc, California –
• Louisville, Colorado, GA, OH –
• Louisville, Kentucky - , or
• Lowville, New York -

See also

• List of places in the United States with counterintuitive pronunciations: M–Z
• Grapheme
• English spelling
• Pronunciation of Chinese names in English - counterintuitive Q, X, C, Zh, etc. in words romanised in Pinyin.

Notes and References

Notes