Speak - Speke

You may not easily confuse the homophones speak and Speke (both pronounced as monosyllables with the long '-e-', 'speek', IPA: /spiːk/), but they do exist, and AWE records them.

• Speak is the common verb meaning 'to express by words [usually aloud]'.
• Speke is a proper noun. It may be
  • a place-name - that of a suburb of Liverpool, formerly a separate village, and manor.

Etymological note: Speke is possibly from the OE spēc, 'brushwood'.

• • a surname, borne notably by the nineteenth century explorer John Hanning Speke (1827–1864), who 'discovered' Lake Tanganyika in company with Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) in 1858, and Lake Victoria without Burton, which led to controversy.

Etymological note: the surname doesn't seem to be connected with the place-name.