Some people say it’s “Moh buhl”, as in rhymes with Noble

Some people say it’s “Moh bile”, as in rhymes with pile, smile.

Personally growing up, I’ve only ever heard “Moh Beel”, as in, rhymes with wheel, peel.

So which one is it?

30 comments

  2. I’ve never in my life heard anyone say either of the first two when talking about the city.

  9. Moh-Beel

    It’s like Arab, Alabama. The place is spelled like a commonly used word, but the name comes from a completely different source. Mobile is named after a tribe which is speculated to come from the town of *Mabila*, which marked the turning point for the De Soto expedition when the chief Tuscaloosa stood up to the conquistador (Arab’s coming from the initially wanting the post office to be named Arad, but the postal service misspelled it in the process and the people just rolled with it. Similar to Snowhall => Snowball in Arkansas).

  10. I’m from Alabama. It’s Mo Beel. Some friends of mine from Pittsburgh would called it Mo Bile and refused to believe it was called any other way. I’ve also heard the British press call it Mo Bile.

  11. Listen to “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves” by Cher.

    They “Picked up a boy just south of mo-BEEL, gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal.”

    Those lines rhyme.

  15. Moh beel is the local pronunciation so that’s the one I go with.

    If you want a fun one newark delaware and newark new jersey are pronounced completely different despite being only 2 hours from one another.

  16. I’m from Long Island and I “naturally” pronounce it the second way you wrote down (rhymes with smile), but being a WW2 buff I’ve since switched to saying it the way southerners pronounce it since I’ve watched “the Pacific” so many times lol.

  19. “Moe BEEL”

    French colonists named it after a native tribe that lived there.

    Fun fact: Mobile is where the very first Mardi Gras celebration in America took place.

    Not-so-fun fact: Fire ants were introduced to North America at the Port of Mobile.

  22. Even though we pronounced it as “mo-buhl” in other contexts, it is “mo-beel” for the city.

  30. I would’ve said moh buhl.

    Funfact: Quitaque Texas is not pronounced quit-a-que, it’s pronounced kit-i-kway. It’s from a Native American name meaning “end of the trail”. Didn’t know that until I rolled up into town.

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like