Brought to you by the letter Z

Tonight I had dinner with my friend from church, Hilary. We had a good time chatting and spent a lot of time comparing British and American phrases and accents. I learned a lot of very interesting things I'll let you in on but I'll have to spread it out.

Tonight's tidbit has to do with the alphabet. In London there is a very detailed map with all the possible streetnames called "London A to Z." Of course, as you're reading this I know how you're pronouncing it (like any normal person would!). But, here they pronounce it A to "Zed." At first I thought maybe they just pronounced the letter Z that way when it was standing alone. However, they actually pronounce it that way all the time! So imagine yourself singing the ABC song and when you get to the end you say "Zed" instead of a regular Z. They even have to change up the end of the song in order to make it work. I was cracking up when I found out- clearly this just doesn't make any sense. Z is for Zebra and zipper, not Zedbra and zedipper! Why would you add an extra letter to the pronunciation if it's never pronounced that way when it is used?