You say San Paydro, and I say San Peedro...

If you're from San Pedro -- or if you know someone who is -- you know how touchy the community can be about how the town's name is pronounced.

Daily Breeze Ask Us maven Stephanie Walton periodically fields questions about this ongoing in-house debate. 

It often flares up when an out-of-towner innocently says "San Pehdro" at some big community meeting, typically drawing a cacophony of catcalls and shouts of "IT'S PEEDRO!"

(Yeah, Pedro can be blunt.)

Here's what San Pedro historian Art Almeida had to say about it all in a recent Ask Us column:

"Natives, near-natives or adopted San Pedrans prefer the use of Peedro. It is an affectionate way of identifying one's residence or birthplace. Of course, the proper pronunciation is "Sahn Pehdro,' to which any first-year Spanish student can attest. I know many Spanish-speaking individuals who say Peedro, with no disrespect to the Spanish language."

So remember. It's Peedro.

I bring this up after spotting Linda Marinkovich, a member of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council, the other day at the San Pedro Dog Park wearing this T-shirt with all the correct "locals only" grammatical markings:

Linda had the shirts made up herself some years ago when her kids were in soccer. But considering how the debate never seems to go away, maybe she should make up a few more.

I suspect there would be many Peedrans willing to snap one up.