Talk:Featherstonhaugh

Fanshaw

Per https://www.countrylife.co.uk/comment-opinion/how-do-you-pronounce-belvoir-featherstonhaugh-and-bagehot-227460 - "Miranda Rock, granddaughter of David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter, confirms that Cecil is pronounced ‘Cissel, as in Thistle’. I checked with Lord Salisbury, a Gascoyne-Cecil, for consistency and he demurred: ‘As in all things, we follow the example of the Exeters.’ At least Cecil isn’t an urban legend. This much is apparently true of Featherstonhaugh, popularly thought to be pronounced ‘Fan-shaw’. ‘It’s not “Fanshaw” for me and I don’t know that any other Featherstonhaughs say that,’ assures Guy Fetherstonhaugh QC. ‘Everybody repeats it because they like to sound knowledgeable. If I’m in front of a judge who doesn’t know me, he’ll call me “Fanshaw” because he thinks it shows that he’s in the know.’ In fact, Mr Fetherstonhaugh’s name (which lacks the middle ‘a’) is pronounced as it’s spelt. ‘People always look slightly crestfallen.’" One would imagine someone so named and who has encountered others of the name would be well-informed on the subject.

Google books brings up numerous (mainly American) fiction and non-fiction books which run with this idea, referring to the travel writer G. W. Featherstonhaugh thus: in one, "he would probably have pronounced it 'Fanshaw'" and in another, "Brits pronounce it 'Fanshaw'". A character in a 2012 fiction book: "William wanted to ask Fanshaw how one gets FAN - SHAW out of a last name spelled Featherstonhaugh but desisted, conceding that it was just a British thing." After all, it seems like such a quaint little Britishism that people- especially foreigners- appear to love it. Most tellingly, Debrett's Correct Form, in its appendix "Pronunciation of Titles and Surnames", has under "Featherstonhaugh" the pronunciation "Fetherston-haugh [ed: i.e., as you'd imagine] or occasionally Fetherston", with a footnote "I can find no record that this name was ever pronounced Fanshaw or Feeston as is popularly believed." If one of the society bibles, which would NEVER admit ignorance/ be willing to appear uninformed, doesn't endorse it, and there's a lack of any decent supporting source, it's pretty certain "Featherstonhaugh" isn't meant to be said "Fanshaw".

Even allowing that some people, knowing of the alleged 'Fanshaw' pronunciation, may choose themselves to pronounce their name that way, there's no justification for EVERY individual on Wikipedia with the surname of Featherstonhaugh or its slightly differently-spelled variants having 'pronounced Fan-shaw' appended, unless there's specific support for that individual having eccentrically adopted the not-at-all-standard, apparently intentionally idiosyncratic pronunciation. Wodehouse evidently made it 'Fanshaw' to match other such ridiculous names in his works and others; the fact that reliable sources seem to indicate no-one has ever been on record as having been named 'Featherstonhaugh' and pronounced it 'Fanshaw' is notable. The BBC Pronunciation Guide thing is supposed to be universally applicable internally, therefore the 'Fanshaw' in that entry can be excused by the Wodehouse situation in relation to BBC productions of his works. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.243.98.138 (talk) 11:16, 18 July 2025 (UTC)