Tahnee

I don't know what a British Columbia accent (as I assume the owner of this site has) does with ah/aw, but we seem to have here a lot of confusion because of the ah/aw merger.

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There are many Americans who have lost the distinction between "ah" and "aw" and pronounce them identically. Unlike many other dialect variations, this one isn't traced to just one part of the country but occurs in several widely spaced areas. One can say that the great majority of younger people in southern California, Washington state, and western Pennsylvania around Pittsburgh have lost the distinction, but that most Americans in the deep South still have it. Elsewhere it often is unpredictable and changes from family to family as to whether "ah" and "aw" have merged.

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People who have this merger as part of their dialect usually can't even hear the difference between "ah" and "aw" when someone who does make the distinction is speaking.

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So if you have this merger, Tahnee and Tawny are pronounced the same.

I have heard this name, and it IS NOT pronounced as Tahini, as I have heard it. It sounds a bit like T-ar-ni. I like it spelt with an 'i' because a double 'e' makes the ending too long.

My name is Tahnee and I pronounce it as TARnee, not TAWnee.

Mandy526 obviously speaks a "non-rhotic" variety of English (i.e., one in which preconsonantal and final r's are not pronounced). Surely she means that she pronounces it "TAH-nee.