How is the name of the town Hingham, Massachusetts, pronounced?

In the UK, place names ending in "ham" are typically pronounced with a final /əm/. For example, Birmingham, Buckingham, Clapham, Sandringham and Tottenham. (I haven't been able to find any counterexamples.)

However, in the USA, I don't know whether the pattern is consistent. I found the following:

  • Bellingham is pronounced \ˈbɛlɪŋˌhæm\.
  • Framingham is pronounced \ˈfreɪmɪŋˌhæm\.
  • Bingham is pronounced \ˈbɪŋəm\.

(Sources: Collins English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster.)

So how is the name Hingham pronounced in the USA: \ˈhɪŋˌhæm\ or \ˈhɪŋˌəm\? I have not been able to find the name in any of the sources I consulted (in addition to Collins and Merriam-Webser: Wikipedia, Longman Pronunciation Dictionary and the Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation.)


Solution 1:

I lived in Massachusetts for 27 years and did some house-hunting in Hingham, and everyone I ever heard say the name of that town pronounced it \ˈhɪŋəm\ .

Note that other two-syllable towns in Massachusetts ending in -ham follow the same pattern of a stressed followed by an unstressed syllable: Dedham, Needham, Raynham, Wareham. On the other hand, Waltham, where I worked for a few years, was always hollered out by the MBTA conductors as WalTHAM (wɔːl'θæm). Go figure.