How to pronounce Killiany?

'kill'-ee-'AH'-'knee'

A variant pronunciation of our name, apparently found in New York and the southern New England states, is

'kill'-ee-'AN'-'knee'

Last Name

uncertain

none that we know of.

Growing up I was told our name was an Anglicized spelling of a Czech name, but in recent years I've been told the pronunciation sounds more Romanian. No one in our household ever agreed on the original spelling of the name. The Anglicized spelling originated on Ellis Island. My grandfather's people were in Derby and other factory towns along the Connecticut coast. My father was an engineer and we grew up on Florida's 'space coast' in the 50s and 60s, with almost no contact with any other Killianys. Through the internet I've met both distant cousins and Killianys who are in no way related to us in New England, the DC area, and Midwest. Our working theory is the same Ellis Island immigration official processed several families. Killianys are broadly divided into two groups, one of which says "Kill-ee-AH-knee" while the other says "Kill-ee-AN-knee" Both are equally certain the other is wrong.