The Pronunciation of Olney

Nearly six years after our first poll on the pronunciation of Olney, our very own Mr. MoCo revisited the topic with polls on Twitter and Instagram (see video below). The two most popular pronunciations, “ole-knee” and “all-knee” were the two options for the polls and the result was pretty similar to our 2017 poll with “ole-knee” coming out on top pretty decisively (results can be seen below).

We’ve noticed that many of those who grew up in or very close to Olney tend to pronounce it as “all-knee”, while just about everyone else goes with the more popular “ole-knee.” Olney, originally named Mechanicsville, officially became Olney in the early to mid 1800s (named after the Olney House…which was named after Olney, England). Olney, the English city that Olney, MD is essentially named after, is pronounced Ole-nee in England…with a bit of an accent of course, which supports what most voters went with.

“The people voting Ole-nee are just wrong. No doubt, All-nee.” said longtime Olney resident, Mark Hajjar, back in 2017.
Hajjar even noted that the Olney dialect has a little more Baltimore in it than other places in MoCo may have, eluding to the possibility that it’s All-nee for natives and Ole-nee for those from nearby places that may not have the Baltimore influence in their dialect. MoCo native Damon Anderson replied to our poll and said “In my experience people 65+ say All. Younger Ole.” Bill Oldach replied on Twitter with “The one here is Ole-ney but the neighborhood in Phila. Is All-ney..” Twitter user Nicole said, “I say it both ways. 🤷🏽‍♀️” How do YOU pronounce Olney?

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