What's a name that you kept mispronouncing?

Before I heard it being said I kept pronouncing the surname "Mangione" as "Man-jee-own" rather than "man-jo-nee" and I'm still ashamed about it lol I'm sorry

57 comments

Yosemite
I've learned in school quite early that it is pronounced as Yo-semmy-tee, but I deliberately pronounce it Yoh-ze-mite, because it's funny.
Ghislaine, but I do it on purpose.
I'm still trying to get some Irish names right in my head, specifically Rhiannon and especially Siobhan.
- Team Jizz Lane
- The Irish name that gets me is Cian, especially cause I used to know someone named Cyan (like the colour).
- I did so too but that's because I knew an actual Ghislaine who pronounced her own name like "djizlaine"
Gonna use this thread as inspiration to piss off people, thank you for your contributions.
Also Gyro is pronounced j-eye-roe.
- I thought it was yee-row.
I'll answer for the 99% of people in my life: Hiram
🫠
Two common names in Scotland are Aileen and Eileen but damned if I don’t say the wrong one every time.
I always pronounced Tolkens name as Token, apparently nobody else made that mistake.
Lancaster (as in Pennsylvania).
Pronounced it as "LAN Caster" like some sort of cyberpunk mage.
Just mentioned this in another thread - Kraken. I say it phonetically - "krayken - but for some reason the world says "cracken".
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXKoWLSyxz4
Internal monologue:
Fuck. Jeremy? Germy? Jehrehmy? Jerremy?
Yo! J-dawg how's it hanging man?
Gillian like Gil in Gilbert and the Gill of a fish not Jill like, well, I honestly still don't know why it's spelled Gillian but pronounced Jillian.
Hasan - I feel like different people have different pronunciations of it and I can't keep track of which is for who.
All English town names, by spite and ignorance but mostly spite.
Oh, I am not pronounching "Glouchestershire" correctly? SPELL it correctly then!
- In his comments on the Jeeves & Wooster series Stephen Fry talked a bit about English family names. Among others, he said Mainwaring is pronounced "Mannering", and Cholmondeley is "Chumley".
- For all native English speakers, this is how the rest of us feel about any words in English
- Is that the one pronounced "Wooster"?
  
  No, Worcestershire is pronounced woostershire
- There was a YouTube video I watch ages ago and it explained it pretty well.
  The differences depends on who settled the town. Roman, Saxon, or Viking
  
  https://youtu.be/uYNzqgU7na4
  This one?
- I have American friends who couldn't pronounce it. it was always some variant of "Glow-kester-sheer" but tbh I can't blame them, the spelling doesn't do the pronunciation justice 😂
  
  I think I'm supposed to say "gl" and then the vocal equivalent of "asdfasdfasdf"
  
  Start intentionally pronouncing "Pittsburgh" with the -burgh suffix from Edinburgh or Musselburgh to get them back
- Glaw-stuh-shur, correct?
  
  It sounds plausible!
- When I was on vacation with my father in Scotland we wanted to see the highland games in Glenisla. We needed directions or needed to know the exact date when they'd take place or so, so we went to some tourist information. That poor girl there had no idea what we wanted when we asked about glennis-law. But she soon figured out that we meant glen-ila.
  The highland games were awesome, btw!
Pronounced Siobhan as SheOhBahn for years.
Sorry SheVohn!
- For me it's, Saoirse
  I have to look it up every time I see it.
  
  If I remember this one, it's Sher-sha?
- I used to have a work friend named Siobhan and when I'd come home I'd mention her to my partner. Sometimes I would text him about her. He fully thought these were two different people for like a year.
- Yeah, and apparently it's the Irish equivalent of fucking "Joan" or similar. JFC.
- Same here. One of my favorite bit-part actors is Siobhan Fallon, who played the wife of "Egger" in Men in Black. She absolutely stole the few scenes she was in. I didn't know I was mispronouncing her name for years.
- came here to say literally THIS name haha, crazy
- omg I know the feeling. had someone in college named this and I pronounced it the same way until she corrected me and I was so sorry 😭 an apology to Siobhans everywhere!
Chongqing like "Chongqing Chicken". not pronounced "chonking".
"Añejo", not pronounced "ah-neh-joe"
"Hors d'oeuvre". funnily not pronounced "horse divorce".
- How's Chongqing pronounced?
  
  Wikipedia says it is like Chóngqìng. "Chong" with long o sound, then tsin.
- "Hors d’oeuvre”. funnily not pronounced “horse divorce”.
  That's a new one and I love it I like calling them "hours devours" which also adds in a non-existing consonant.
  
  yeah, french (and borrowed words) is usually my hard-mode when it comes to pronunciations. this one is special because it's dessert (or so I think).
.
- Seer-shuh I think
- Some friends named their kid this, but we moved right before the kid was born.
  It's been years, and many Zoom calls. Still no idea how to say it
- Sershaw ?
- Oh, so that's how you pronounce the new Maruja song
Any Chinese name beginning with X. Took me awhile to figure out Nuyen as well.
- Nguyen
  'N when did you find out?
- Isn't X just like a muted "sh"?
I'm not convinced there is a correct pronunciation for "Kirsten."
- Are you combining it in your head with Kristen or Kierstin?
Apparently, any Indian names until I can see how they are spelled.
Loudon Wainwright

57 comments