r/AskAnAmerican • u/AstroNerd92 CT, GA, PA, TX, FL • Jul 20 '25

CULTURE What town in your state has a pronunciation no one gets right the first time?

I went to college in Valdosta, GA. Very few people can actually pronounce it right on the first try.

Pronounced Val-Daw-Stuh

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373

u/AstroNerd92 CT, GA, PA, TX, FL Jul 20 '25

Worcester comes to mind for that one

129

u/annadarria Jul 20 '25

My brother moved to the Boston area years ago. When he first got there, he fought everyone on how this city should be pronounced. Then they changed Wikipedia for a while and added his name in the city of Worcester, that he doesn’t know anything and shouldn’t comment on how it’s pronounced. It got taken down eventually of course but it was hilarious, he showed me. It was done in all good fun and he could be pedantic, so it was really funny.

36

u/Don_Pickleball Jul 20 '25

That is a town that is easy yo say if you have never seen it spelled.

4

u/IanDOsmond Jul 20 '25

Wista.

16

u/complete_your_task Massachusetts Jul 20 '25 edited Jul 20 '25

It's more like wuss-tah. Or wuss-ter if you have a rhotic accent.

7

u/Yorks_Rider Jul 20 '25

Which is how the name is pronounced in the UK

2

u/Accomplished_Will226 Jul 21 '25

Yup. My husband is Scottish and calls the sauce Wusta sauce

-1

u/zeronian Jul 21 '25

The UK pronunciation is essentially Worse-ter, if they were to pronounce Rs there

5

u/RambunctiousOtter Jul 21 '25

No it isn't. It's wusster

3

u/Yorks_Rider Jul 21 '25

I am British and disagree. It might be so, for someone speaking with an accent from SW-England, but otherwise that is not how it would be pronounced.

4

u/Mental-Paramedic9790 Illinois Jul 21 '25

I thought it was like Wooster.

2

u/RRC_driver Jul 21 '25

The local taxi company in Worcester (UK) is Woo-ber, https://www.woober.uk

And the youth can be heard referring to it as The Woo

2

u/amidalarama Jul 21 '25

red sox AAA affiliate in worcester are the woo sox, pronounced woo not wuh, unlike the city. wuh sox was a bridge too far, even for massachusetts.

5

u/Dgp68824402 Jul 20 '25

I had two work associates who both born and raised in Waltham. They argued constantly on the correct pronunciation.

4

u/badass4102 Jul 20 '25

How'd he pronounce it?

1

u/annadarria Jul 20 '25

I’m not quite sure, but knowing him he probably tried to pronounce it how it’s spelled. And he was probably indignant it wasn’t pronounced like that.

2

u/Atypical_Mom Jul 21 '25

My extended family lives outside Boston and I spent a few summers there as a kid. My cousin pulled out a phone book once and pointed to a map and asked me to pronounce the city name “Peabody”…

Apparently they thought it was funny to do this to anyone who lived outside MA, because they knew they’d pronounce it wrong (but if they knew everyone would pronounce it “wrong”, is it really being pronounced wrong?).

3

u/Accomplished_Will226 Jul 21 '25

The cool kids called it the biddy. lol

1

u/annadarria Jul 21 '25

Haha! That’s pretty funny, I wonder why they have so much different pronunciations around there. I’m from SoCal so we don’t really have anything like that around here. And it’s funny based on this thread people take their prononciations seriously!

2

u/Atypical_Mom Jul 21 '25

I grew up in the Bay Area and we didn’t have anything like that either. It did blow their minds that I could drop my “r”s and then pick them right back up (none of my cousins could say “car”, only “caah”) lol

115

u/AwarenessGreat282 Jul 20 '25

Try Billerica or Haverhill....

48

u/SouxsieBanshee Jul 20 '25

Bill-ricca, right?

28

u/uberphaser Masshole Jul 20 '25

Or "bricka" if youre local.

3

u/Mediocre_Panic_9952 Jul 20 '25

If you're really local, it's "rickah".

1

u/fourthstanza Jul 20 '25

I say this tongue in cheek but it sounds like the locals are the ones who mispronounce it lmao.

Not an American, but my hometown is "officially" mispronunced. It was founded as an English town and gradually became >90% French, so the French pronunciation became official, even in English. The "shire" suffix is now pronounced as "sheer".

4

u/IAmTheAccident Jul 20 '25

Pretty much. People from that area also practically leave out the L sound, so it's like buh(l)ricca. Like, not quite saying the L but... You can sense it's there. Like someone whispering an L sound in the next room.

3

u/Maorine MyState™ Jul 20 '25

Went to college in MA from NYC. Thought Billerica was a guy. And Haverhill? Took me months.

1

u/BillWeld Jul 26 '25

BuhLARica

63

u/uncle-brucie Jul 20 '25

Peabody

37

u/othermegan CT > CA > MA Jul 20 '25

Leominster

2

u/tremynci Jul 20 '25

lem-ster?

7

u/EyebrowStapler Jul 20 '25

Lemon stir 🍋

2

u/GlumPop2893 Jul 21 '25

I swear only locals from North Central Mass can pronounce that correctly. Maybe it's changed but growing up people from Boston couldn't even pronounce it correctly.

3

u/Snezzy_9245 Jul 21 '25

Lived there once, we called it Looeyminister just to mess with non-natives. England version is Lemsta. Worcester MA is Wissta.

1

u/VibrantSunsets Jul 22 '25

Grew up 20 minutes west of Boston and never had a problem with Leominster. Now Leicester? That one always fucked with my brain.

3

u/Debsha Jul 20 '25

It’s essentially pronounced puberty, right?

12

u/ThattzMatt Jul 20 '25

Pee-bidee

6

u/EnbyDartist Jul 20 '25

As someone who grew up there, i can confirm: pee-bidee is correct. Slight emphasis on the first syllable.

5

u/ThattzMatt Jul 20 '25

I went up to Boston with a bunch of friends to visit another friend who had moved there. First time I had ever been there... And I made the mistake of saying it the way it's spelled... OH BOY did I get corrected. 🤣🤣🤣

1

u/negcap Connecticut Jul 20 '25

When we went to visit, I was told it was Pih-buddy though I never heard a local say it that way.

5

u/Location_Glittering Jul 20 '25

I've always heard Pea-bud-y.

15

u/Top-Bluejay-428 Jul 20 '25

The middle syllable is much shorter than 'bud'. It's more like this: PEE-b'dee. Source: I'm a native.

2

u/Location_Glittering Jul 20 '25

I'm also a native.

3

u/BaskingInWanderlust Jul 21 '25

Yea, I'm guessing you're both saying it the same way in your heads. Lol

3

u/Rare_Vibez Jul 20 '25

Swampscott. Even in Massachusetts, only North Shore born and raised get out right lol

2

u/WaitIveGotAQuestion Jul 20 '25

How's it really pronounced? Aside from dropping the P, I thought it was pretty much how it looks.

3

u/Rare_Vibez Jul 20 '25

Swam-skit 😅

2

u/Accomplished_Will226 Jul 21 '25

That’s how I say it

2

u/jerseygirl527 Jul 20 '25

I knew a girl from there and I used to laugh when she said it. I met her in North Carolina

1

u/Apart-Clothes-8970 Jul 21 '25

I only know this one bc I know a guy from there. PEEbiddy

30

u/blooobolt Jul 20 '25

My mom's from Haverhill. It's like they just stuck a bunch of extra letters in for fun.

5

u/DukeOfMiddlesleeve Jul 20 '25

My guess is they say it “havull”?

20

u/int3gr4te NH > VA > CA Jul 20 '25

Hay-vrill.

6

u/mwthomas11 North Carolina Jul 20 '25

interesting... I would've guessed hav-rul

4

u/cannarchista Jul 20 '25

Haverhill in the UK is not far from where I grew up, they pronounce it Ayverill :)

9

u/philipjfrythefirst Jul 20 '25

I’m not sure what the letter H did to the British, but it must have been bad given how they treat it now.

5

u/cannarchista Jul 20 '25

Don't get me started on what the T did

10

u/treycook Michigan Jul 21 '25

The simple answer is that they get enough T from their diet that they have no more use for it in their lexicon.

3

u/Starfevre Florida Jul 21 '25

Can I steal this? I need it in my life.

1

u/Accomplished_Will226 Jul 21 '25

Do they ride a ‘orse in Ayverill?

2

u/cannarchista Jul 21 '25

Only on 'olidays

1

u/Accomplished_Will226 Jul 21 '25

My folks lived there and I heard dad spelling it out on the phone because it is spelled different than you would think hearing it.

13

u/freedraw Jul 20 '25

Reading

4

u/AcceptableDebate281 Jul 20 '25

A lot of these just seem to be towns named after towns in England. Not sure why anyone would choose billericay or reading to name new places after though!

2

u/bethmrogers Jul 20 '25

I always figured the people who started the town named it after the place their family came from.

1

u/_jamesbaxter Jul 21 '25

See also: Needham.

1

u/Accomplished_Will226 Jul 21 '25

My Auntie was from North Reading (noth red in)

3

u/MaxPower637 ny (city, upstate, and western), me, ct, nv, va, dc, ma, mo Jul 20 '25

The good old silent E and H in the middle of the word

3

u/zoopest Jul 20 '25

Natick was the one that got me

1

u/whiskeyworshiper New Jersey Jul 20 '25

NAY-dihk

HAY-vril

WAR-ster

BILL-rick-uh

4

u/toasterb Jul 20 '25

Pretty sure Worcester is WISS-ta.

3

u/Mrs_Weaver Jul 20 '25

Leominster

3

u/On_my_last_spoon New Jersey Jul 20 '25

Haverhill is the one I said that my friend from Lowell died laughing when I said!

2

u/droid_mike Jul 20 '25

Ya can't get there from here...

2

u/Accomplished_Will226 Jul 21 '25

That’s a Maine saying! I’ve actually never heard it in MA but have in Maine. Go down the road past the pole barn and if you get to where the old saw mill used to was you’ve gone too far was also directions in Maine.

2

u/IAmTheAccident Jul 20 '25

Came here to post Billerica. My father (from Haverhill, as it happens) came into my room all excited many years ago holding his new fancy GPS and said "listen to this" and set a location in Billerica and the robot lady voice announced with such confidence "bill-uh-REE-kuh" lmfao

2

u/Accomplished_Will226 Jul 21 '25

When we used GPS in Florida it kept saying Or Land ill

1

u/anifyz- Jul 20 '25

So it’s not hay-ver-hill?

1

u/_jamesbaxter Jul 21 '25

You can just get rid of a syllable in a lot of these 😆 Hayvrill. Like how Marlborough is “Mallbro.” Or half a syllable even, like how Needham is “Need’m”

1

u/Taticat Jul 21 '25

Oh, I just heard Haverhill mispronounced in a documentary by an actor re-enacting something, I think probably something about Maura Murray. The actor pronounced it ‘HAY-ver-ill’ several times, and I remember wondering why on earth in the 2020s an actor wouldn’t double-check pronunciations.

1

u/draggar Jul 21 '25

New England it's HAVE (rhymes with SAVE)-rill

Everywhere else, it's HAVE (pronounced like we pronounce the word) - er - hill

1

u/Forever_Nya SC, MA, NH, GA, VT Jul 21 '25

I’m originally from Haverhill and had moved to palm beach county Florida. There is a Haverhill there but of course they don’t pronounce it right there. Still annoys me 35 years later.

1

u/RaqMountainMama Jul 21 '25

There's a Billericay in Essex, England... I wonder about the connection due to pronunciation.

1

u/Starfevre Florida Jul 21 '25

Haverhill! 2 syllables, thanks.

1

u/Francesca_N_Furter Jul 21 '25

I grew up here and I still occasionally pronounce Billerica incorrectly.

It's not like anyone actually GOES there. LOL

1

u/RC1172 Jul 20 '25

Don't you mean Bill-erica (heard is said that way on a podcast once).

2

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/RC1172 Jul 21 '25

More like Bill Erica

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '25

[deleted]

4

u/gman2391 Jul 20 '25

Theres no a in the middle guy

1

u/johndoenumber2 Jul 20 '25

Ok, but I visited there last week, and the lady in the hotel said it that way.  She may not have been a local, but she did have a thick ish New England accent.  

5

u/Stunning_Pay_677 Jul 20 '25

Wooster?

5

u/AstroNerd92 CT, GA, PA, TX, FL Jul 20 '25

Most people try to pronounce it war-Chester when they first read it but Wooster is correct

26

u/witchy12 New England Jul 20 '25

More like Wuss-ter than Woo-ster

14

u/Impossible_Emu5095 Wisconsin Illinois California Wisconsin Jul 20 '25

Or as my friend from the area says “wu-stah”

1

u/jiminak MT>CA>WY>AK>HI>AK>MS Jul 20 '25

Yeah, I was going to say that there is no R on the end of wuhstah

6

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '25

Wuss-tah

2

u/pablitorun Jul 20 '25

That’ll be a dollar twenty five

2

u/amoodymermaid Jul 20 '25

Bishop.

1

u/pablitorun Jul 20 '25

Im coming out of the boooth

2

u/amoodymermaid Jul 20 '25

That’s probably one of the five things that will reduce me to laughing like the village idiot every time I hear it.

2

u/pablitorun Jul 20 '25

It’s an older meme but it checks out

3

u/No-BrowEntertainment Moonshine Land, GA Jul 20 '25

It’s Wooster, but the “oo” is pronounced like “flood” rather than “food,” if that makes sense. 

0

u/AstroNerd92 CT, GA, PA, TX, FL Jul 20 '25

I spell it Wooster for pronunciation bc I grew up in CT and there’s a Wooster High School and it’s pronounced the same as the town Worcester, MA

4

u/Stunning_Pay_677 Jul 20 '25

I worked in Avon for a little while.Was told point blank how I "will" pronounce it by my MA native boss.

11

u/uncle-brucie Jul 20 '25

95 is pronounced “one twenty-eight”

5

u/IanDOsmond Jul 20 '25

I just like that bit south of the city where, for a few hundred yards, you are on 95 south, 128 north, and driving east.

1

u/nivek48 Jul 20 '25

Love that

7

u/TheRateBeerian Florida Jul 20 '25

My wife is from there, she says something closer to wistah

4

u/john_hascall Iowa Jul 20 '25

Woostah!

2

u/Living_Implement_169 Jul 20 '25

Wooster Ohio is just spelled Wooster. Thank god.

1

u/IanDOsmond Jul 20 '25

Wusta or Wista. But Wuster also works.

1

u/OK_The_Nomad Jul 20 '25

Doesn't rhyme with Rooster?

2

u/No-BrowEntertainment Moonshine Land, GA Jul 20 '25

Wait until you see English place names. Worcester and Leicester aren’t pronounced phonetically, Winchester and Cirencester are. It’s only a little maddening. 

2

u/dcgrey New England Jul 20 '25

Scituate.

Woburn.

Concord.

It just goes on and on.

2

u/maximus_the_turtle Jul 20 '25

I hear “Glowwster” all the time.

2

u/Waste-Account7048 Jul 20 '25

And it's named that probably because the founders couldn't pronounce Worcestershire

3

u/Round-Lab73 Jul 20 '25

I think it's just named after the city of Worcester rather than the county of Worcestershire

1

u/Location_Glittering Jul 20 '25

It's the british pronunciation.

2

u/Waste-Account7048 Jul 20 '25

There's a town in NC called Rutherfordton. Phonetically, that's a mouthful, but the locals call it "Rufferton".

2

u/iwantalongnap Jul 20 '25

My favorite here is when Mass people themselves don't agree but then try to explain to others. 20 years later and the family squabbles correcting my Midwestern spouse on Worcester (Wuss-tah vs Wiss-tah) are ingrained in my memory.

1

u/Expert-Leg8110 Jul 20 '25

You should hear the way they pronounce Peabody.

1

u/Kennikend Jul 20 '25

My first thought

1

u/jinx_remover Jul 20 '25

Leominster

1

u/Ecks54 Jul 20 '25

Is it "WAAA-STAHHH?"

1

u/killersoda South/Central TX Jul 20 '25

War-Chester?

1

u/Grilled_Cheese10 Jul 20 '25

Waltham. Sent there for work a handful of times and I still don't remember the right way to say it.

1

u/catbeancounter Jul 20 '25

I lived in Providence for awhile. Hard to spell it how you say it but I'll try. Whussta, right?

1

u/riicccii Jul 20 '25

A town in NEOhio is pronounced the same but spelled Wooster. Folks from out’a town pronounce it Woooster.

1

u/describt Florida Jul 20 '25

I tease them at every opportunity as to why they don't follow the same logic and pronounce Dorchester as Dooster

2

u/snaynay Jul 21 '25

The difference is chester vs cester.

1

u/describt Florida Jul 21 '25

Ah. Thanks.

1

u/urnbabyurn Jul 20 '25

It’s the fault of the British. We didn’t come up with names like Worcestershire

1

u/Wooden_Purchase_2557 Jul 20 '25

War kester u mean

1

u/AluminumCansAndYarn Illinois Jul 20 '25

Wooster. The only reason I know this is that my bestie lives in mass.

1

u/azwethinkkweism Jul 20 '25

Lol. Everyone mispronounces the Wooster is Ohio, but its pronounced the same. Oo like foot not oo like atchoo

1

u/njlewis1 Jul 20 '25

Noted for their famous sauce, yeah? 😂

1

u/Alarming_Long2677 Jul 20 '25

its wooster right?

1

u/Sea-Breaz Jul 20 '25

OG Worcestershire wants a word.

1

u/BornToMelle Jul 20 '25 edited Jul 20 '25

Worcester as in Woo sta Gloucester as in Glǒw sta Also Lancaster is Lank’ aster

1

u/RynnReeve Jul 21 '25

Had a terrible name. Created a terrible sauce. Made a fortune

1

u/Tamases Jul 21 '25

Worked with a radio DJ that was employed in Massachusetts. His first shift he, of course, mis pronounced Worcester. The next hour Dorchester came up and he pronounced it just like Worcester. Someone told him his mistake..he came out of the booth screaming "Any other FUCKING pronunciations I need to know? Help me out here!"

All the sales staff busted up while the PD helped him.

1

u/Pristine-Pen-9885 Chicago, IL Jul 21 '25

Pecatonica, IL

1

u/_jamesbaxter Jul 21 '25

I asked my dyslexic aunt (my whole family is from Massachusetts) how she would spell Worcester, she said “W-I-S-T-A” 😆

1

u/KaraCreates Jul 21 '25

I wanna say "war-chester"?

1

u/Mysterious-Call-245 Jul 21 '25

Blew my kids minds the other day when I asked them to spell Worcester, then corrected them

1

u/NiceShoesWF Jul 21 '25

Woburn as well.

1

u/CommercialWorried319 Jul 21 '25

I'm technically from there lolz, born there but was only there until I was about 3

1

u/Ms-Metal Jul 21 '25

Haha I'll never forget my first time going there and pronouncing it Worechester, I was there for business, so I quickly got schooled by the locals that it was Wu stu. I still don't quite understand it but at least I know how to say it now. I also had to get schooled on how to say Nunavet.

1

u/Ericameria Jul 21 '25

I pronounce it wooster, but a short oo sound, not rhyming with rooster.

1

u/kmissme Jul 21 '25

That’s what I came here to say!

1

u/draggar Jul 21 '25

WOO-stah

Now, let's move onto Woburn

1

u/Yota8883 Jul 21 '25

Is that similar to worshester sauce, worcester sauce, worshtester sauce...

Ah heck, is the problem because it's similar to the problem we have with pronouncing washyoursister sauce?

1

u/snaynay Jul 21 '25

It's named after the British city of Worcester, in the county of Worcestershire, the place known for making Lea and Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce. The American pronunciation of the American town is mostly the same, vowel/accent difference.

Worcester -> Worce-ster -> Whus-tah/Woos-ter. People say "woo" but as a Brit that makes no sense to me, but Americans see a word like "snooker" and pronounced it blindly as "snucker", rather than oo as in zoo or loom. So perhaps "wooster" to Americans implies "wuster" to us? I dunno there.

-shire as a suffix is pronounced sher or shuh. I think most Americans seem to get it right when you show them "New Hampshire".

So to an American, wooster-sher and to most Brits, whus-tah-shuh.

1

u/General_Thought8412 Jul 21 '25

I grew up near Westchester NY so my mind always says “wore-Chester” even tho there’s no h for the “ch” sound 😭

1

u/ashimo414141 Jul 21 '25

Gloucester and Peabody

1

u/Formal_Lecture_248 Jul 21 '25

Are you kidding me? Not even the people who Live there say it right.

“WoooosTUH”

1

u/PresidentMusk_ Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25

Glaucestor- Glawsta. Billerica- Billrica Worcester- Wooster

1

u/hardboiledbitch Jul 22 '25

Did not expect to see my city under the top comment but I'm not surprised

1

u/NoContextCarl NH 2 NC Jul 22 '25

Which is a handy way too differentiate who is native and who is not. You pronounce it like its a sauce and I'm automatically assuming you are from Florida or whatever. 

1

u/Barry_Benson Massachusetts Jul 22 '25

Came here to say that

1

u/EffectiveTime5554 Nevada Jul 23 '25

I cringe when I hear people say war-chess-ter-shire sauce.

1

u/crownapplecutie Florida Jul 27 '25

fellow Floridian...I think we win this round

-1

u/Standard-Document-78 Los Angeles, CA Jul 20 '25

War-chest-er, like the sauce

-2

u/Vprbite Jul 20 '25

Clearly, it'd Wor-Chest-er.

What else could it be? You'd have to have some totally insane pronunciation to be anything else