Dolan-Heitlinger
Pronunciation

Here it is. No longer do you need to let your voice trail off as you struggle to introduce one of the Dolan-Heitlingers. No longer do you have to fear being invited to gatherings where you might have to pronounce our name.
No longer will strangers ask afterwards,
"What was their name, Don't Know Bitewingers?"
Here is both the pronunciation of our name and more than you probably wanted to know about them.

Dolan is Irish, from County Leitrim in the Connacht Province, in the west of Ireland.
We have been told that County Leitrim is viewed by the Irish in the same way as Americans view the American Midwest. County Leitrim has a population of fewer than 30,000. It is a rural county with rolling hills and lakes and small towns and villages.
Dolan should be pronounced to rhyme with rollin' like in the theme from the TV show Rawhide; "Rollin, rollin, rollin, keep them dogies rollin." Or for you nautical types, it rhymes with the bowline knot. So much for the relatively easy first half.
Heitlinger is Germanic from Southern Germany, Austria, or Czechoslovakia depending on what part of the family we are talking about and what time frame.
It is a very uncommon name, worldwide. If you run into a Heitlinger, I or one of the other genealogy-driven Heitlingers probably know them or at least know of them.
Heitlinger should be pronounced to rhyme sort of with sight singer.
The first part is pronounced just like height. It sounds like light or bite or site . . . not like heat or beat or bet. The second part sounds like ringer or winger . . . not like finger or lingo or injure.

Our first names are easier:

John rhymes with Don and or like the Jamaican "hey mon". Eileen rhymes with "I Lean" which is also not a bad way to remember her name.
Alexis rhymes with the car Lexus and the state of Texas. Claire rhymes with air and bear and eclaire.
 

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