“Worchester.” But look up: there’s no h. It’s a mean trick,”
Yea like the “a” Boehner. It’s really pronounced Boner, as in
ignorant, compromised, bonehead, or “bonned” if you prefer.
A common Lutheran pilpul argument is whether the 20th century theologian whose first name was Dietrich should have pronounced his last name Bon-haw-fer or Bon-hay-fer (it's spelled Bonhoeffer).
One of my graduate philosophy professors pronounced George Berkeley's name like [Charles] Barkley, another like the California college. Since George has become famous for asserting that things exist only because they are perceived, I wonder how his name was supposed to be perceived.
In MA Worcester is actually pronounced “Wuster”. And, Leominster is pronounced “Le’minster” and Woburn is pronounced “Wooburn”.
If it were pronounced int the German from which it seems to come it would be closer to boiner.