Staunton. Is it pronounced like "Stanton"

[raccoon]

Or “stAUNTon”, sounding like “taunt” as in, “trump taunted the reporters”?

[nocoincidences]

1. Stanton rhymes with ant-on.

[Newest Reality]

2. Locally,

I hear it pronounced close to: Stantn, but never stAUNTon.

[hlthe2b]

3. In Virginia, it is Stanton... But there are StAUNTONs' elsewhere in the US...

Because of that, I used to hear annoyed Virginians call it "Stanton-StAUNTON" some years back -- usually with an eyeroll.

[dameatball]

4. Used to go there occasionally for work. It's Stanton. I pronounced it wrong at first.

[empedocles]

5. Beaufort in NC and SC

are pronounced bofort in NC and bewfort for the SC town

[No Vested Interest]

6. Pronunciations in US are all over the place, owing to anglicization of non-anglo names.

Many here in the Midwest:
Lima, OH-= LY-mah, not Lee-mah
Illinois = Il- uh-noy, not Il-uh- nwah
Detroit = Duh-troit, not Duh-twah
Cairo, IL = Care-oh, not Ky-row.

NC - Bo-fort is closer to the original French pronunciation, though not exact, as the final "t' would not likely be pronounced in French.
Same Anglicization with many Spanish words, and one can only guess that Native American names have been mangled.

(I'm no expert in languages; just recalling high school and college studies 60+ years later. Feel free to improve upon my attempts.)

[phylny]

7. Fun with names in Virginia

http://thebullelephant.com/pronunciation-guide-to-places-in-virginia/

[Recursion]

8. Really good peanut soup there

The queen of the Shenandoah, that town.