Message: "Pronouncing the name "Stephen""

Pronouncing the name "Stephen"

by Stephen1976

11/16/2011, 1:30 PM

Usually the name "Stephen" is pronouced as "Stee-vin" but where in the US is it stongly pronounced as "Ste'fen"? Does anyone else have this dilemma with the "Stephen" name or any other person with other pronunciactions of their name?

#pronunciation

Replies

- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans)

11/17/2011, 2:41 PM

As Claudia says, in the USA "Stephen" is normally pronounced the same as Steven.

I would think that "Stephan" though would usually be pronounced like Stefan.

- ClaudiaS

11/16/2011, 4:22 PM

Stephen is traditionally "stee-ven" in English. However, people from other cultures may not be familiar with this. I once had a Korean student insist that Stephen must be "steff-en" and only Steven was "stee-ven." Also, in various European languages the name is pronounced "steff-en" or "steff-on" or "shtef-on" (German), so Europeans may carry this over into English as well.

I don't think you could pin anything down to one region of the U.S., though.

View Message

Replies