Say Whut? How to Pronounce Names of Places in Texas

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
How Texans pronounce place names down here.

In case y’all haven’t noticed, Texans do things their own way. Pronunciation, for example, is always a crapshoot when you’re from out of state. If you ever get lost in Texas, the place names that follow are good to know. Depending upon where you are in the state when you ask for directions, if you say them incorrectly you’ll most likely get snickered at and you may get a blank look.

This list is far from comprehensive.

First, a few universal basics:

Any name ending in “-boro” is pronounced “[name]buh-ruh”
Any name ending in “-shire” is pronounced “[name]sher.”
Most names ending in “-ville” are pronounced “[name]vuhl.”
Most names ending “-land” are pronounced “[name]luhnd.” (You have to listen pretty hard to hear the D.)
In Texas, “bayou” most often is pronounced “BI-oh,” not “BI-yoo.”

Mispronouncing any of these is a dead giveaway you ain’t from around here:

Bexar: Bear
Blanco: BLANK-oh
Boerne: BUR-nee
Bosque: BAHS-key
Bowie: BOO-ee (C’mon, folks. Jim Bowie was one of the brave defenders of the Alamo. The least y’all non-Texans can do is say his name right.)
Brazos: BRA-zuhs (short A, as in “cat”)
Eldorado: ell-duh-RAY-doh
Gruene: Green
Guadalupe: GWAH-dah-loop
Humble: UHM-buhl (The H is silent in this Houston suburb’s name, people! What you do with it any other time is your own bidness.)
Luckenbach: LOO-ken-bahk (There is absolutely no excuse for getting this one wrong. Merle Haggard sang a number-one country hit about the town, for pete’s sake.)
Manchaca: MAN-shack
Mexia: Muh-HAY-uh
Palacios: puh-LASH-us
Pecos: PAY-cuss
San Marcos: San MAR-cuss
Seguin: Seh-GEEN (Named for Juan Seguin, a Tejano hero of the Texas Revolution who wasn't at the Alamo.)
Waxahachie: Wawks-uh-HATCH-ee

The following are more obscure, and we’ll forgive you for mispronouncing them. Many of them are pronounced nothing like they’re spelled. Some are Texan-ized Spanish, German, or American Indian words. Some are settlers’ surnames. Lord only knows where the rest came from.

Alvarado: Al-vuh-RAY-doh
Agua Dulce: Ah-wah DOOL-sih
Anahuac: ANN-uh-wack
Aquilla: Uh-KWILL-uh
Balmorhea: Bal-muh-RAY
Banquete: Ban-KET-ee
Bedias: BEE-dice
Bogata: Buh-GO-duh
Bolivar: BAHL-iv-er
Bronte: Brahnt
Brookshire: BROOK-sher
Buda: BYOO-duh
Bula: BYOO-luh
Buna: BYOO-nuh
Burnet: BURN-it
Carmine: Kar-MEEN
Celina: Suh-LIE-nuh
Christoval: Chris-TOE-vuhl
Cibolo: SEE-oh-low
Coahoma: Kuh-HO-muh
Colmesneil: COLE-mess-neel
Comal: KOH-muhl
Del Valle: Del VA-lee (pronounced like “valley”)
Erath: EE-rath
Falfurrias: Fal-FURY-us
Farrar: FAR-uh
Flatonia: Flat-TONE-yuh
Floresville: FLOORS-vuhl
Floydada: Floy-DAY-duh
Fredonia: Free-DOHN-yuh
Fulshear: FULL-sher
Grand Saline: Gran Suh-LEEN
Helotes: Hell-OH-tiss
Jiba: HEE-buh
Hico: HIGH-koh
Hochheim: HO-hime
Iraan: EYE-ruh-ANN
Jardin: JAR-duhn
Jermyn: JER-muhn (pronounced like “German”)
Jiba: HEE-buh
Jourdanton: JERD-n-tuhn
Juliff: JEW-liff
Kleberg: CLAY-berg
Knippa: Kuh-NIP-uh
Kountz: Koonts
Kosciusko: Kuh-SHOOS-koh
Kuykendal: KIRK-en-doll
Lake Buchanan: Lake Buh-CAN-uhn
Lamarque: Luh-MARK
Lamesa: Luh-MEE-suh
Lampasas: Lam-PASS-us
Latexo: Luh-TEX-oh
Leakey: LAY-key
Levita: Luh-VIE-duh
Lillian: LILL-yun
Llano: LAN-oh
Lorena: Low-REE-nuh
Manor: MAIN-er
Marathon: MARE-uh-thun
Marquez: mar-KAY
Miami: My-AM-uh
Medina: Muh-DEE-nuh
Montague: Mahn-TAG
Navarro: Nuh-VARE-uh
Nacogdoches: Nack-uh-DOH-chess
New Berlin: Noo BUR-lin
New Braunfels: Noo BRAWN-fuls
Nocona: Nuh-KOH-nuh
Olney: ALL-nee
Opelika: OPEH-uh-LIKE-uh
Palestine: PAL-uh-steen (Nobody gets that one right unless they’re from Texas.)
Pedernales: Purr-den-AL-ess
Pflugerville: FLOO-ger-vuhl
Poth: POE-th
Quemado: Kuh-MAH-doh
Quitaque: KITTY-qway
Refugio: Reh-FURY-oh
Salado: Suh-LAY-doh
Salinero: Suh-LEEN-yo
Santa Elena: San-tuh LEE-na
Study Butte: STOO-dee BYOOT
Tawakoni: Tuh-WAHK-uh-nee
Tivoli: Tih-VOH-luh
Tulia: TOOL-yuh
Uvalde: Yoo-VAL-dee
Weesatche: WEE-sash
Weslaco: WESS-luh-koh

Now, place your Stetson over your heart, face Austin, and sing “The Eyes of Texas,” and we just might make you an honorary Texan.

Texans, what names aren’t on this list? The rest of y’all: What odd place names occur in your thereabouts? Tell us in the comments! I’ll give one commenter a digital copy of the five-author boxed set A Kiss to Remember.

Cheryl Pierson, Tracy Garrett, Tanya Hanson, Livia J. Washburn, and I filled nearly 1,000 pages with western romance stories about San Francisco firefighters (yes, they existed back then), gunmen, preachers, outlaws, con men, and ranchers. (Anybody besides me see a bad-boy theme developing here? Well, except for that hunky preacher, and Lord knows the rest of the alleged "heroes" need him around to keep them somewhere in the general vicinity of the straight-and-narrow.)

I'm a mite biased, but I think there's some excellent reading in this set.

Don't just sit there! Light a shuck on down to the comments and get after it.

A Texan to the bone, Kathleen Rice Adams spends her days chasing news stories and her nights and weekends shooting it out with Wild West desperadoes. Leave the upstanding, law-abiding heroes to other folks. In Kathleen’s stories, even the good guys wear black hats.

Her short story “The Second-Best Ranger in Texas” won the 2015 Peacemaker Award for Best Western Short Fiction. Her novel Prodigal Gun won the EPIC Award for Historical Romance and is the only western historical romance ever to final for a Peacemaker in a book-length category.

Visit her hideout on the web at KathleenRiceAdams.com.