Keynes (pronunciation)

The name Keynes has two uses currently.

• It is found in a number of place-names, such as Milton Keynes. In these, it is pronounced with a long '-i-' to rhyme with 'means' and 'scenes': IPA: /kiːnz/. Horsted Keynes is an exception: it uses the predominant family pronunciation below.
  • (Keynes as an element in a place-name indicates previous ownership in the years after the Norman Conquest of the place by a member of one of the families variously written de Kaines, de Kaynes, de Cahaignes, Cahagnes [a place in Normandy], de Keynes etc.)
• Modern representatives of these families mostly write themselves Keynes, and pronounce it as a homophone of 'canes',rhyming it with 'planes' and 'Danes':IPA: /keɪnz/. This includes
  • the great economist John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946). The adjective to refer to him and his work, keynesian, and the doctrine Keynesianism, are pronounced like their eponym: 'CANES-i-an', IPA: /ˈkeɪnz ɪ ən [ɪz^əm]/
  • his father John Neville Keynes (1852–1949) also an economist; a teacher and administrator at Cambridge University
  • Simon Keynes (1952- ), Professor of Anglo-Saxon (retired 2019) in Cambridge University (great-nephew of John Maynard Keynes, and, like him and Simon's brother Roger, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge).