and we have pronounced it as Cook since at least 1874 when it is spelled that way on my great-great grandfather's marriage certificate. One of his brothers actually changed the spelling to Cook in the 1910s, perhaps because of anti-German sentiment during WWI.

It means 'cook' in German, so I think that pronounciation in Englisch is logical.

But other families say it different.

The evil plutocrats do say 'coke'.
The former mayor of New York says 'cotch'
The Koch Tractor family says "coe"

My family came over after WW1 and pronounces it Kotch -- soft o. there are quite a few ways to pronounce the name--

The evil ones are Koke.

I've known some other Kochs who use "cook."

Deutsch for cook ("der koch" with the ch kind of guttural).

I think most people here pronounce it "coke"....

In the firearms world there's a German manufacture (Heckler & Koch) I've always heard the name Koch pronounced the same way you say Coke.

Point of note: HK firearms is not affiliated with the Koch brothers we're referring in this thread. Just using that company's name and how I've always heard it pronounced.

i think you will find that many on this board do NOT consider sucking cock a bad thing.

Best not to have to say their cursed name at all.

one of them gave a naming gift to what was once the NY State Theater in Lincoln Center. Video reports abt that pronounce it as 'coke'.

With the accent on the invisible 'r'.

Tikki

yes INDEED

It's a German name and that's how they pronounce it.

No German would use a long sound. While every American Koch may have the right to their own bastardized pronunciation, in German there is only one:

http://de.forvo.com/search/Koch/

e.g. up north the "ch" would be like an English "sh", while down south it would be like a Scottish "ch". The vowel also gets higher the farther south you go.

... the determiner of whether a guttural 'ch' sound is used, or something closer to the English 'sh", is the vowel that precedes it. The vowels 'i' or 'e' will be followed by a higher 'ch' sound (closer to the English 'sh', but produced further back in the mouth by arching the tongue against the roof of the mouth. When 'ch' is preceded by an 'a', 'u' or 'o', it will be pronounced with the more guttural 'ch.'

There's all sorts of rules for how "ch" is pronounced, depending on where in the German-speaking world you are. For a Frisian, it's always "sh". For a Swabian, it's always guttural. Different rules apply in different areas; there's even a cool map of it somewhere. How "pf" (both initial and medial) gets pronounced is another good map.

The pronunciation of an "o" that precedes two consonants (unless the first consonant is an 'h') is rendered in the International Phonetic Alphabet with a character that looks like a backwards 'c'. The sound that corresponds to it is more like what we might render as an "aw" diphthong, albeit without the ending 'u' inflection. It is actually much closer to the English "cock" (only with a German, guttural 'ch' sound rather than a hard English 'k' sound at the end), that it is to 'coke.'

Where you are has a bigger impact on pronunciation than where the letter is.

(FWIW, this is the pronunciation I was expecting):

http://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT#auto/en/Koch

See above. Long "o", with guttural, hard "ch".

Never heard the others...Ugh. And we didn't get any of their money, either.

However it is not pronounced "cook" in German. It would sound a little similar to cough.

And it does translate to English as cook. Origin is latin cocus... One who prepares food. Although its mistakenly considered a jewish name, its german.
In English, some pronounce it coke, some kotch, some cook. Only DUers pronounce it cock.

You can hear the Dutch pronunciation here (at the link, on the left side, click the "Nederlands" tab, then hit the little speaker icon in the lower right side of the box):
http://translate.google.be/?rls=ig&hl=nl&tab=wT#de/en/KOCH

Origins in low german language, which evolved into english, dutch etc. Among the low german tribes were the Saxons, Angles, Frisians, and Jutes. They spread all over Europe, not just England.

the pronunciation is still the exact same as in German, though: the o sound is pronounced short and open, much like in "cock", never as in "coke".

And not too different from English. All had origins in Low German.

I don't think he was related, but he was most clear about the pronunciation of his K-o-c-h.

Lots of silent letters in German, you know...

Ed Koch is a mensch from New York City.
The billionaire Koch Brothers are *holes.

Does that help?

Hekate