Deborah

A friend of mine has a dance teacher who pronounces her name dee-BOR-uh, with emphasis on the second syllable. She's in her early 40s so it's probably not meant to be a trendy or creative pronunciation.

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My friend and I both think it sounds very pretty, but Deborah herself actually hates the name herself and just goes by Debbie.

Variant English Pronuncations: DEHB-awr-ə, DEHB-or-ə, DEHB-o-rə, deh-BO-rə, deh-BOR-ə.

Love my name. Deborah. Heavy on the Deb and the o is pronounced. Not fond of Debbie but everyone says it. Always tell people Deborah when I meet. Weird how people change it.

My name is Deborah. It's usually pronounced DEB-ruh unless my family is teasing or taunting me, then it's de-BORE-uh. So that's not a pronunciation I like much. I also think the spelling Debra is an abomination, something teenage boys learn to do in the back seat of a car: "I can de-bra my girlfriend with no fumbling now!" Yes, of course I was born in the 50s. I was unhappy about my name in school because there were so many other girls with the same name or only slight variations. I also felt Debbie Reynolds spoiled it for the rest of us. The name held out expectations of someone short, pretty, perky, and blonde, and those of us who were taller, plainer, more sardonic, and not blonde were failing in our Debbie-ness. I have fallen into being a curt Deb over the last couple of decades, since that's what people tend to call me anyway, even my sister, my ex-husband, and people I've JUST INTRODUCED myself to with "Hi, I'm Debbie." "Nice to meet you, Deb," comes right back. I give up. --D.

My supervisor at work tends to pronounce her DEBORAH name as "Dee-BOR-uh" which usualy isn't found in the pronunciation grid.

I know that I'm pronouncing it wrong, but I usually say "da-BOR-ah".

My mother's name is Deborah and it is pronounced de-bor-uh.

I often pronounce it now as "deb-OR-ah".