Walter Meyer responds to Steve Schwartz who was responding to Walter:

>>>And how would the Germans pronounce Ralph Vaughan Williams' first name?
>>
>>The ones who knew something would pronounce it "rafe."
>
>Just so they don't pronounce it "Raahlf" or, worse, "Rawlf"

Unfortunately as a little boy I could never pronounce his name.  So he
became "Uncle Giraffe".

CR