In Geneva, Switzerland there are various buildings named after John Knox, the early Scot Protestant who lived for a while in Geneva after being exiled. When Knox is mentioned in America his name is normally pronounced "Nox" like Fort Knox is. But in Switzerland the K isn't silent, as I learned when visiting. It's weird when you think about it why English decided that K's at the start of words should be silent.
You must have not had a dad that would constantly ask for you to pass the butter kanife. As a kid, I just assumed bad dad joke about silent letters, but then I saw Holy Grail, and realized he was making a movie reference.
Yeah, I didn't get the masturbation pun for that one until like three years ago; it always seemed like a pretty innocuous title until someone laughed when I mentioned it.