Thanks, Steve.

Your sister’s name is pretty funny. I don’t know anyone whose three names end with the same syllable like that.

Growing up, my name was always pronounced Graddy (rhymes with laddie). My dad use to joke (I think) that the Gradys (Gray-dees) had money and the Graddys didn’t. It wasn’t that big of a deal to me as I only travelled in “country” circles, so pretty much everyone pronounced it that way.

When I got to college, it quickly became evident that my pronunciation of my name wasn’t the way the “rest of the world” pronounced it. When I would make reservations on the phone I would have to spell my name for the person because of the way I was pronouncing my name.

My Great-Uncle Grady quipped while giving my Grandfather Grady’s eulogy that when a Grady (Graddy) moved more than 60 miles away from home, he became a Grady (Gray-dee). What?! Really? You can change the way you pronounce your name?! Well, my uncle did it. Why can’t I? So, I did.

I think my mother is a bit upset with me over this change, but it is something that I’m not going to back down on. I may be wrong for turning my back on my heritage or something like that… but I don’t care. It’s kinda amusing when she answers the phone at my house with, “Graddy’s Residence… I mean, Grady’s Residence.”

A couple of funny side-notes: When my wife attended nursing school in the county where my family is from, everyone called her Amy Graddy. Another funny thing is that my sister married a Braddy, who pronounces his name Bray-dee. So, she became Wendy Graddy Bray-dee.

The example you gave of the difference between long and short sounds (butter vs butane for eg) doesn’t really stack up in your case, because nowhere do i hear you pronouncing the “u” in your surname like the “u” in butter, or any of the others cited. It’s a completely different vowel sound. (Unless you’re accent is completely different to how i remember it!)

It’s not so much a question of how to pronounce the letter “u” but a question of stress… The sound you make with the “u” is exactly the same as that of the southern states, the difference (as i perceive it) is that the stress in the word is different. In your pronounciation, you place the stress on the first syllable, “Ras” which has the effect of shortening the vowels of the following syllables. Listening to your “southern” pronunciation it sounds to me like the stress is on both the first and second syllable (which doesn’t make sense to me) but which does give extra length to the vowel. The “u” sound you use in your surname (I don’t have the phonetic alphabet installed so i can’t type the symbol here, but check out this link http://jobs.languagelink.ru/images/tefl/letters4.gif if you like) is the long “u” sound, but placing the stress in another part of the word has the effect of shortening it..

So to my ears the sound you make is the same as in “butane” but, with less stress, so therefore it sounds shorter. But it is not the same as the sound of the vowel in butter. Or perhaps you should send me a sound file of how you pronounce “butter”?!

Just for the record, when I read the name, I hear “RAS’-mahsun” in my mind. In Virginia, California, and Utah, I’ve know at least one Rasmussen family, and they all have pronounced it the same way, like you do.

Ventura – venchurra, when I practice saying it out loud, I realize there is almost no difference in the sound I make. The “t” sound is way out towards the front teeth, but from me it sounds very similar to the “ch” sound I make, which is way back in the back-teeth. Sorry, if I try to say it too well, my brain flips to Spain-mode and it becomes a hard “d” and the “r” becomes a soft “d”

- BEN -Doo -dah Hace Ventura, AH-thay Calor

“Mountain” is one of those words that I pronounce one way one day, and another another day. “Mau’-in” when I’m not thinking about it, though. what a mess.