This history of the name, according the www.marylebone.net, is &quot;The name Marylebone derives from a medieval church constructed on the banks of the Tyburn and called St. Mary-by-the-Bourne, later Maryburne&quot;.<BR><BR>Bill, we do pronounce Mary the same way as scary and vary, and indeed Marry is pronounced like Harry.<BR><BR>Two pronounciations of Marylebone are common and equally correct: &quot;Marry - luh-bone&quot; and &quot;Marlibone&quot;,<BR>but &quot;Mary (as in scary) le bone&quot; is not usual, and coupled with an american accent would sound like a mispronunciation.

and my two cents would be that for Americans, these words all rhyme exactly:<BR><BR>Barry, carry, dairy, fairy, Gary, hairy, Harry, Larry, Mary, marry, scary and vary.<BR><BR>None of them rhymes with berry, cherry, ferry, Gerry, Jerry, merry, Perry, Terry or very.<BR>

It is not true that for Americans the words listed by &quot;forFran&quot; all rhyme exactly. The difference, if any between Mary-marry-merry is a well-known regional distinction. I'm originally from eastern Pennsylvania, where all three are pronounced differently by most people. It's a standing joke between me and my friend from southern Virginia, who couldn't even hear the difference between the way I pronounced them, much less reproduce it. And her name is Mary.<BR><BR>Not that any of this really matters!